Spring 2017 by SVA Visual Arts Journal

journal VISUAL ARTS

SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS MAGAZINE SPRING 7

SP RING 2017 FROM THE PRESIDENT | 3 SVA CLOSE UP | 4

News and events from around the College WHAT’S IN STORE | 10

Products created by SVA entrepreneurs CREATIVE LIFE: Parental Advisory | 18

Pursuing a career in the arts while raising a family Inka Essenhigh | 22 In Essenhigh’s paintings, everything is animated

PORTFOLIO:

SPOTLIGHT: Tokyo | 32

Four graduates who live and work in Japan’s bustling capital Q+A: Peter Svarzbein | 38 Meet the artist-politician working to reconnect El Paso and Juarez WINDOW DRESSING | 42

Bergdorf Goodman showcases the work of alumnus Elliott De Cesare COLOR COMMENTARY: Christoph Niemann | 46

A show-and-tell with the 2017 Masters Series honoree

“The people who once held these tickets . . . for one moment, they were neither winners nor losers.”

OPEN CONCEPT | 56

Expanding the idea of universal design ALUMNI AFFAIRS | 64

SVA Alumni: Where Do We Go Now? | Alumni Scholarship Awards Donors | Alumni Notes & Exhibitions | In Memoriam FROM THE ARCHIVES | 80

Anyone for tennis?

“We focus on output being universal, but maybe we should focus on input being universal instead.”

VISUAL ARTS JOURNAL School of Visual Arts Magazine Spring 2017 Volume 25, Number 1

MYSVA

Alumni re-imagine the SVA logo

EDITORIAL STAFF S. A. Modenstein, senior editor Greg Herbowy, editor Tricia Tisak, copy editor

VISUAL ARTS PRESS, LTD. Anthony P. Rhodes, executive creative director Gail Anderson, creative director Brian Smith, art director Ryan Durinick, Gina Roi, designers

COVER FRONT: Christoph Niemann, photo-

drawing for the Blueprint co-working space in Hong Kong, 2014. BACK: Katsumi Hayakawa, Reflection (detail), 2015, acid-free paper and mixed media.

ADVERTISING SALES 212.592.2207

CONTRIBUTORS Ann Binlot Emma Drew Alexander Gelfand Dan Halm Michael Hoinski Beth Kleber Michelle Mackin Jane Nuzzo Anna Ogier-Bloomer Folake Ologunja Miranda Pierce Angela Riechers Charles Snyder Patrick St. Michel Kate Styer Victor-John Villanueva Ricky Zehavi Â© 2017, Visual Arts Press, Ltd. Visual Arts Journal is published twice a year by SVA External Relations. School of Visual Arts 209 East 23rd Street New York, NY 10010-3994 Milton Glaser ACTING CHAIRMAN

David Rhodes PRESIDENT

Anthony P. Rhodes EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

facebook.com/schoolofvisualarts instagram.com/svanyc schoolofvisualarts.tumblr.com twitter.com/SVA_News vimeo.com/svaedu youtube.com/user/SVANewYorkCity

Victor-John Villanueva BFA 2001 Design

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

FROM THE PR ESIDENT

n the fall 2015 Visual Arts Journal, we announced the start of SVA’s latest reaccreditation process with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the organization that oversees colleges and universities in the mid-Atlantic region and has vouched for the quality of SVA’s academic programs and admin-

istrative services since 1978. All schools accredited by Middle States, or Self-assessments MSCHE, must undergo comprehensive reaccreditation every 10 years. This January—after many hours of work by the steering committee, directed by Provost Jeff Nesin, and more than 56 SVA administrators, faculty and staff—that process culminated with the publication of a self-study report. This document details SVA’s commitment to MSCHE standards as well as our own goals and guiding principles. Beginning next year, this self-

are not easy. But they are helpful. This latest exercise has already produced tangible improvements in SVA’s operations.

study and MSCHE’s response to it will inform the drafting of the College’s next strategic plan, which will outline what we would like to achieve in the coming years. So stay tuned for news on that front. Self-assessments are not easy. But they are helpful. This latest exercise has already produced tangible improvements in SVA’s operations. And the process itself is rewarding, as people from all different areas of the College, some of whose daily responsibilities and routines scarcely overlap, come together to share ideas, recognize accomplishments and find areas for improvement. This strengthens our organization’s sense of shared purpose, much in the same way that we hope the Visual Arts Journal keeps you connected and engaged with SVA and our growing community.

David Rhodes

pr esi den t school of v isua l a rts SPR ING 20 1 7

PHOTO BY HARRY ZERNIKE

I hope you enjoy this issue of the magazine.

CLOSE UP

News and events from around the College

Drawn to the Light

arshall Arisman, founder and chair of SVA’s MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program, advises his students to draw what they know best, advice the illustrator and fine artist himself follows. Arisman grew up in rural western New York, where guns, hunting and barnyard butchery were part of everyday life. But he was powerfully influenced by his grandmother Louise, a noted psychic and medium who lived in the nearby spiritualist community of Lily Dale. It’s no surprise, then, that ever since abandoning an early career in graphic design to become an illustrator and fine artist, Arisman’s work has dealt equally with the earthly and the ethereal. Both sides will be represented late this summer in the exhibition “Marshall Arisman: An Artist’s Journey from Dark to Light, 1972 to 2017.” Tracking the last 45 years of a career that is now in its sixth decade, “An Artist’s Journey from Dark to Light” will feature paintings, sculptures, etchings, editorial illustrations and short films. Pen-and-ink drawings of firing-squad executions, suicides and other horrors from Frozen Images—the 1973 book that established Arisman’s early reputation among art directors as “the go-to guy whenever there was a murder,” he says—will be on view. So will deformed portraits of villains both real (Adolf Hitler, for U.S. News & World Report) and fictional (Darth Vader, for Time, and Hannibal Lecter, for

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“Brainstorming is not nearly as valuable as people think it is. A bunch of people sitting around a conference table debating stuff is almost entirely useless.”

For up-to-date news and events, visit

SVA.EDU

–DANIEL BURKA , design partner, Google Ventures.

From a talk hosted by MFA Interaction Design.

numerous outlets). But the exhibition will also sample heavily from Arisman’s fine art, which has gravitated toward more enlightened themes, particularly in recent years. Paintings of Buddha, sacred monkeys and aura-bearing buffalo and other animals will be on display, as will the winged, light-leaking angels Arisman created for his 2014 SVA subway poster series, which was inspired by his grandmother’s advice that he “learn to stand in the space between angels and demons,” he says. “I’ve been trying to occupy that space ever since.” “Marshall Arisman: An Artist’s Journey from Dark to Light, 1972 to 2017” will be on view from August 19 to September 16 at the SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor. A reception will be held at the gallery on Tuesday, August 22, from 6:00 to 8:00pm. For more information on the art of Marshall Arisman, visit marshallarisman.com. [Greg Herbowy]

OPPOSITE FROM TOP Marshall Arisman,

Buffalo in Snow, 2006, oil on canvas; Angel, 2016, oil on wooden panel. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Marshall Arisman, Death Penalty (rejected Time cover), 1982, oil on rag paper; Red Demon, 2015, oil on wooden panel; cover for the March 23, 1981, issue of Time; Sacred Monkey, 2000, oil on rag paper.

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CLOSE UP

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A Complete Selection

The State of Social Design

SVA’s MFA Design for Social Innovation program, now in its fifth year, has expanded its reach with a biannual online publication, The Understatement. Launched in September 2016, the journal introduced itself as “the antidote to obfuscation” and a place for “words that will measure, codify and render cogent the workings and outcomes of our new field of social design.” SVA’s is the first MFA program in social design, a distinction that department chair and The Understatement editor Cheryl Heller takes seriously. “We have a responsibility to represent the practice realistically and honestly,” she says. “No ‘truthiness.’”

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“What you notice in Hollywood these days, which is kind of hideous, is that young directors seem to be doing these very big films. Not because [studios] think they’re going to be geniuses—it’s because they can be bullied.” –MICHAEL APTED , filmmaker. From an SVA Filmmakers Dialogue event.

JOHN FUJI

Following its 30th anniversary celebration last fall, SVA’s MFA Computer Art Department began a new chapter this year with a new chair: Terrence Masson, a longtime animation and visual effects industry leader, began his tenure on January 1. His predecessor, Bruce Wands, who served 22 years in the position— and 32 years as an SVA faculty member—has retired to pursue his work in research, writing, music and curating, and has assumed the title of department chair emeritus. Masson brings more than 25 years of education and production experience to his role as chair. He was most recently executive professor of animation at Northeastern University, in Boston, where he led the creation of the undergraduate Game Design and Interactive Media programs in the university’s College of Arts, Media and Design. He is the author of CG101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference (New Riders Press, 1999), an early, comprehensive guide to a then-nascent field. As an animation and visual effects professional, he has contributed to more than 20 feature films, including Hook (1991), True Lies (1994) and three Star Wars movies, and supervised numerous interactive projects, including SimCity 4 (2003) and Alter Echo (2003). In 1996, he developed the original computer-graphics production process for Comedy Central’s South Park, and in 1998, his short film Bunkie & Booboo won an award for best 3D CGI effects at Animation Magazine’s World Animation Celebration. His latest venture, Building Conversations, provides augmented reality visualization services for the architecture and real estate industries. Since 1988, Masson has been active in SIGGRAPH, an international association of computer graphics professionals, serving as chair for its 2006 Computer Animation Festival and 2010 con-

H E A R D AT SVA

ference. He is currently the organization’s Outstanding Service Award chair. Masson is also a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Visual Effects Society and holds an MFA from William Paterson University, in New Jersey, and a BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. “It’s a tremendous privilege to be able to build on such an incredible legacy here in MFA Computer Art,” Masson says. “Exploration and evolution have been a constant in my career, and I’m looking forward to bringing that sense of excitement about the possibilities and future of the field to our students.” [Folake Ologunja]

The debut issue featured a conversation with Hayley Hughes, the first design language lead at IBM; a critique of the concept of “free markets” by department advisor and Seventh Generation founder Jeffrey Hollender; and thoughts on social design by Heller herself. The second installment, published earlier this year, centered on the ideas and discussions brought forth at the department’s Measured Symposium, held in January at the SVA Theatre. This inaugural design summit, a combination of facilitated workshops with presentations and panels, focused on measuring the impact of social design on human health;

participants shared questions and challenges, best practices and thoughts for appropriate ways to evaluate design’s efforts at social change. “There is very serious work going on, and an army of very impressive and responsible people working in this field,” Heller says. “With The Understatement, I want to represent the latest thinking and practice.” To read The Understatement, visit theunderstatement.design. [Emma Drew]

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

To submit an item to Close Up, send information to BELOW The first class of GroundFloor

NEWS@SVA.EDU

fellows pose with their mentors at the incubator’s 2017 kickoff evening.

BRIDGET BADORE

Make It So

naugurated in January, SVA’s GroundFloor Incubator is the College’s latest addition to its roster of programs and resources dedicated to supporting design and entrepreneurship. Open exclusively to select graduates recommended by their department chairs, the GroundFloor initiative consists of a six-month program of classes, lectures and product development, and offers workspace and other crucial resources for fledgling talents, all with the goal of turning socially minded design ideas into viable products and businesses. The initial class of eight fellows, as the members of each cohort will be known, came into the GroundFloor with individual projects to work on. As of publication, they are well into their series of eight two-week-long learning modules, focused on distinct design and business disciplines. A six-week transitional period, to prepare their products for market launch, will follow. The GroundFloor is housed in the studio building of legendary designer, longtime faculty member and SVA Acting Chairman Milton Glaser, at 207 East 32nd Street. As its name indicates, the incubator takes up the building’s first floor, a space that Glaser offered to SVA on the sole condition that it be used, he says, “for unpredictable purposes.” SPR ING 20 1 7

“I think there’s a lot of good we can do,” says the GroundFloor’s director and MFA Products of Design faculty member Sinclair Smith, citing the many promising but underdeveloped projects that students often abandon after graduation. Current fellows’ projects include a sustainable furniture line by Judy Chi (MFA 2016 Products of Design), a medical marijuana doser by Sarah Wilson (MFA 2016 Design) and a women’s health and sexual wellness kit by Maia Kaufman (MFA 2016 Design for Social Innovation). Souvik Paul (MFA 2016 Products of Design), who is using his time at the GroundFloor to develop a catheter sterilizer, says he appreciates the program’s real world focus. “It’s an area that a lot of design education doesn’t necessarily cover: what to do after the product has been designed, and you’re trying to make it,” Paul says. The GroundFloor’s second term begins in July, and Smith plans to expand the pool of applicants to include other nondesign degree programs over time. For more information, visit groundfloor.sva.edu. [ED]

CLOSE UP

CARLY ROMEO

“‘Who will you pass the torch to?’ The question makes me angry. There is no one torch—there are many torches—and I’m using my torch to light other torches.”

Speaking Out

riter, activist and feminist icon Gloria Steinem will be the keynote speaker at SVA’s 41st annual commencement exercises, to be held Tuesday, May 9, 1:00pm, at the landmark Radio City Music Hall in midtown Manhattan. For even the minimally engaged, Steinem needs little introduction. As a young journalist in the 1960s and early ’70s, she fought industry sexism to establish herself, reporting on politics, culture and the then-burgeoning women’s movement. She was among the original editors of New York magazine—co-created in 1968 by Clay Felker and SVA faculty member and Acting Chair8

man Milton Glaser—and in 1972 cofounded Ms., the groundbreaking and influential feminist magazine. In more recent years, she has branched into film and television, producing documentaries on the death penalty and child abuse as well as a Viceland television series, Woman, on women’s issues all over the world. Her latest book, the bestselling My Life on the Road (Random House, 2015), covers her decades of near-ceaseless travel on behalf of her chosen causes. As an organizer, Steinem has dedicated herself to an array of issues, including racial and gender equality, reproductive rights and the preservation of threatened indigenous communities and cultures. She has cofounded and served with numerous advocacy organizations, including the Ms. Foundation for Women, Equality Now,

National Women’s Political Caucus and Choice USA (now URGE), and her many honors and recognitions include a 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award. In a 2015 New Yorker profile, Steinem told writer Jane Kramer, “People are always asking me, ‘Who will you pass the torch to?’ The question makes me angry. There is no one torch—there are many torches—and I’m using my torch to light other torches.” The 2017 SVA commencement exercises will celebrate the achievements of some 1,170 bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates enrolled in the College’s 32 degree programs. For those unable to attend, the event will stream live online, and be archived thereafter, at sva.edu/commencement. [GH] V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

Viewing Options Over the past year, Visual Arts Journal has rolled out a new, improved online presence to better serve its core readership and promote SVA community achievements to the wider public. Select stories from the magazine, often featuring extras such as video content, additional art and other updates, are now published as features on the College’s homepage, sva.edu, and entire issues—dating back to 2013, as of this writing—are available to review, share on social media or download as a PDF (for registered users) via Issuu, a digital publishing platform. To explore the magazine’s online offerings, visit sva.edu/about/ visual-arts-journal and check back often for exclusive material from the Journal, both new and old.

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“I think what you’re seeing is a growing contempt and despair on the part of people who make these ads for the people that they’re speaking to.” –MICHELLE GOLDBERG , journalist. From a conversation with artists Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese about their film Political Advertisement IX: 1952-2016, which documents the evolution of political ads. Hosted by MFA Art Practice, MFA Computer Art, BFA Fine Arts, MFA Fine Arts and MFA Social Documentary Film.

CHRIS TE AGUE

Dance Partners Adam Natale, director of the SVA Theatre, and Angie Wojak (BFA 1990 Media Arts), director of SVA Career Development, were the College’s emissaries at this year’s Sundance and Slamdance film festivals, two of the more high-profile events on the independent film world’s calendar, and both held in January in Park City, Utah. Natale and Wojak traveled to Utah to network among producers, distributors and filmmaking talent. Their goals? Promote Career Development’s services to potential employers of SVA alumni and students; to research possible studios to visit on the SVA Destinations animation, filmmaking and visual effects programs in Los Angeles and San Francisco (for more information, visit destinations.sva.edu); and to drum up interest among industry professionals for SVA Premieres, the annual student and alumni film showcase, which will be held in Los Angeles this June. The pair also met with a few alumni who had work showing at the festivals, including Mike Roth (BFA 1999 Animation), co-creator of SVA Premieres and a producer of Julia Pott’s animated short Summer Camp Island, which was picked up to become a series on the Cartoon Network, and writer-director Gillian Robespierre (BFA 2005 Film and Video). Robespierre’s second feature, Landline—which includes effects work by John Mattiuzzi (MFA 2012 Computer Art)—screened as part of Sundance’s 2017 U.S. Dramatic Competition; it was subsequently acquired by Amazon Studios. Capping off the trip, Natale hosted Second Feature Frustration, a Slamdance panel discussion. Participating filmmakers Jerzy Rose and Halle Butler (Crimes Against Humanity, Neighborhood Food Drive) and Matthew Lessner (The Woods, Automatic at Sea) talked with Natale and answered audience questions about the challenges of following up one’s debut film. [ED & GH] SPR ING 20 1 7

Still from Gillian Robespierre’s Landline (2017), courtesy Frank Publicity. Landline, the BFA 2005 Film and Video graduate’s second feature, premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

WHAT’S IN STORE

The latest from SVA entrepreneurs: books, movies, products and more

Wishbone Letterpress

DANIELLE BLISS and JOE VENDITTI wishboneletterpress.com Hand-printed stationery, starting at $5 per card The story of Danielle Bliss (BFA 2005 Graphic Design) and her husband, Joe Venditti, proves that wishbone wishes do come true. After graduating from SVA, Bliss commuted to New York City from the couple’s Hudson Valley home for five years, working nights as a designer and animator for a major television network, but her true interest was printmaking and in particular letterpress cards. The couple had a ritual of breaking a wishbone before she left for work one night a week, but it wasn’t until she was laid off in 2010 that they realized they had been wishing for the same thing: to start their own company and have creative freedom. Bliss and Venditti, who has a background in sculpture, opened Wishbone Letterpress the next year. Wishbone Letterpress offers a line of greeting cards, which range “from sassy to sweet,” Bliss says. The pair writes their own original content and creates either hand-drawn or computer-generated designs that they print on their antique letterpress. They also take custom orders for invitations, business materials and more. In addition to their online shop, Wishbone is carried in various gift shops and stationery stores. The couple will also show and sell their work at this year’s National Stationery Show, to be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan from May 21 to 24. [Michelle Mackin]

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

Light Phone

JOE HOLLIER and KAIWEI TANG thelightphone.com Unlocked 2G mobile phone, $150

hen Joe Hollier (BFA 2012 Graphic Design) joined Google’s first 30 Weeks incubator program in 2014, the expectation was that the participants, all designers of various backgrounds, would develop software products or apps, programs that, for better and worse, have made smartphones an ever-more indispensible tool of modern life. “They wanted us to be thinking of [how to solve] problems that were meaningful to us,” he says. But the problem, as Hollier saw it, was that “technology keeps people hooked to their screens. The last thing the world needs is another app.” Hollier soon found a likeminded collaborator in fellow 30 Weeks participant Kaiwei Tang, who had several years’ experience designing cell phones. Together they developed the Light Phone: a back-to-basics phone “designed to be used as little as possible.” Roughly the size of a small stack of credit cards and available in white or black, the Light Phone uses your existing smartphone number to

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make and receive calls, saves up to seven numbers on speed dial—and does nothing else. Working with electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group, the designers sweated every detail, in particular the phone’s matte glass front and muted display lighting. Hollier frames the project as less about an attractive product, however, than about enabling periods of greater focus, calm or inspiration, whether they be a weekend at the beach, a day at one’s studio or a night out with friends. With that philosophy in mind, the two plan to reenvision other technological products under the Light brand, making them more aesthetically appealing, long lasting and “human centered,” he says. After a successful Kickstarter campaign and preorder period, during which some 6,500 units were reserved, the Light Phone is now in mass production. In addition to online sales, Hollier hopes the devices—available in white and black—will be sold soon at design-centered stores, cafés and bookstores. [Greg Herbowy] 11

WHAT’S IN STORE

SHORTS

KATHY SHORR, with introduction by MAX KOZLOFF and afterword by DR. TANYA ZAKRISON PowerHouse Books Hardcover, 136 pages, $39.95

hen Kathy Shorr (BFA 1988 Photography) started teaching photography in New York City schools several years ago, she noticed that students would sometimes wear memorial cards, honoring friends and relatives who had died. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, they’d died from gun violence,” she says, “and they’d become sort of folk heroes in the community.” Having once been held at gunpoint herself but left physically unharmed, she started to wonder about the victims of gun violence who hadn’t died—“those who were shot and survived and have to go on with their lives, dealing with the trauma.” Four years ago, Shorr set out to photograph as inclusive a selection of these survivors as she could, combing the Internet for local news reports from across the country. She began with an Indonesian American man in Brooklyn, and ended with a Native American woman in South Dakota. In between, Shorr traveled some 100,000 miles and met with a wide range of people, from an eight-year-old to an 80-year-old, police officers to gun owners, victims of domestic violence to those of mass shootings like the ones at Fort Hood, Texas (2009), Tucson, Arizona (2011), and Aurora, Colorado (2012). After her work was covered in such publications as Slate and American Photo and exhibited at such venues as the Houston Center for Photography and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Chair Charles Traub sequenced the portraits for her book, which was laid out by her son, Nikolai (BFA 2011 Advertising). Shorr, who continues to teach, is already at work on her next long-term project on the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and other conflicts arising from eminent-domain actions taken by private companies. [GH]

52 (more) Flower Mandalas An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief

Now, in the immortal words of author Maurice Sendak, who spoke to the child in all of us, let the wild rumpus start! T�� P��

Shot: 101 Survivors of Gun Violence in America

Bookbinder & O’Malley

The exquisite Flower Mandalas in this book are based on the award-winning digital photographs of David J. Bookbinder. They have been transformed by artist Mary O’Malley into a family of illustrations that invite you to create your own works of art, experimenting with color and form in a unique and personal way.

52 (more) Flower Mandalas

52 (more) Flower Mandalas: An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief blends the beauty of ﬂowers, the centering of mandalas, and the wisdom of the ages to provide hours of inspiration, relaxation—and joy!

David J. Bookbinder & Mary O’Malley

52 (MORE) FLOWER MANDALAS: AN ADULT COLORING BOOK FOR INSPIRATION AND STRESS RELIEF Written by David J. Bookbinder, illustrated by Mary O’Malley (MFA 2005 Fine Arts) Transformations Press Softcover, 110 pages, $8.99

LOVE SKYWRITING STAMP Louise Fili (faculty, BFA Design and MFA Design), Jessica Hische and Derry Noyes U.S. Postal Service First-class mail forever stamp sheet of 20, $9.80

GREG GORMAN PRIVATE WORKS 2000 – 2015 Greg Gorman (faculty, MPS Digital Photography) Verona Libri Hardcover, 275 pages, $75

EVERYDAY WITCH TAROT Written by Deborah Blake, illustrated by Elisabeth Alba (MFA 2008 Illustration as Visual Essay) Llewellyn Tarot deck and guide, $29.99

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

To submit a product for What’s in Store, send information to

NEWS@SVA.EDU POLLY APFELBAUM

JONI STERNBACH

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Last August’s release of March: Book Three completed the years-long collaboration among civil rights legend and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, his congressional aide and coauthor Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell (BFA 2000 Cartooning) to create a comic-book version of Lewis’s remarkable life story. Over the course of its three volumes, March has topped best-seller lists, made its way onto some 30 states’ public school curriculums and won innumerable recognitions. Last fall the trio were honored for their work with the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the first time a graphic novel has been so recognized. Intended to inform and inspire new generations of activists to agitate for a fairer, more peaceful world, March’s message recalls the charge Congressman Lewis gave to SVA graduates in his keynote address at the College’s 2014 commencement exercises: “You have a mandate,” he said, “to get out and disturb the order of things.” [GH] SPR ING 20 1 7

Maharam Digital Projects

PHOEBE WASHBURN

JOHN LEWIS, ANDREW AYDIN and NATE POWELL Top Shelf Productions Softcover, 560 pages, $49.99

MARILYN MINTER

March Trilogy Slipcase Set

VARIOUS ALUMNI and FACULTY maharam.com Wall coverings, price based on project size Since 2009, textile manufacturer Maharam has been working with noted artists and photographers to create large-scale wall coverings based on their work, and many of the company’s collaborators are members of the SVA community. Maharam currently offers designs by alumni James Jean (BFA 2001 Illustration), Robert Lazzarini (BFA 1990 Fine Arts), Tim Rollins (BFA 1977 Fine Arts) and K.O.S., Joni Sternbach (BFA 1977 Photography), Sarah Sze (MFA 1997 Fine Arts) and Phoebe Washburn (MFA

2002 Fine Arts), as well as faculty members Polly Apfelbaum, Tomokazu Matsuyama and Marilyn Minter. Maharam’s full-color, mural-style installations are sized, priced and produced on a project-specific basis. All designs, most of which measure at least 10 by 16 feet, are offered at the same price per square foot ($45), printed with fade-resistant ink on a washable, latex-reinforced substrate and can be sized or modified to suit specific room requirements. [Dan Halm]

WHAT’S IN STORE

Michael De Feo for J. Crew

MICHAEL DE FEO jcrew.com Limited-edition shirts, $39.50 – $49.50 Rebellious behavior can be rewarded, as evidenced by a recent partnership between artist Michael De Feo (BFA 1995 Graphic Design), perhaps best known for his flower-motif graffiti (check out his Instagram feed @theflowerguy), and apparel retailer J. Crew. Using a key that opens ad display cases on New York City bus shelters, De Feo customized one of the brand’s spring 2015 ads, nearly obscuring the poster with an impressionistic painting of pink and white buds. Rather than take offense, J. Crew’s higher-ups were charmed and invited him to create a collection of shirts, which were introduced this January. To promote the collaboration, De Feo also created window display art, which was installed in more than 270 U.S., Paris and London J. Crew locations earlier this year. For more information, visit mdefeo.com. [MM & GH]

SHORTS

SQUIRE PEN Joey Cofone (BFA 2013 Design) and Adam Kornfield Baron Fig Aluminum-body ballpoint pen, $55, three-pack ink refills $12

RESCUING EDEN: PRESERVING AMERICA’S HISTORIC GARDENS Written by Caroline Seebohm, photography by Curtice Taylor (faculty, BFA Photography and Video) The Monacelli Press Hardcover, 224 pages, $50

IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE Written and directed by Ti West, produced by Peter Phok (both BFA 2003 Film and Video) Focus Features Film, 104 minutes, VOD $5.99 (rent), $14.99 (buy), DVD $19.98, Blu-Ray $26.98

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA Written and directed by Dash Shaw (BFA 2005 Illustration) GKIDS Film, 75 minutes, premieres April 14

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Bijoux Art

BUNNY TOBIAS bunnytobias.com Bronze jewelry, $150 – $1,125

or Bunny Tobias (1963 Fine Arts), the transition from her art practice to creating her jewelry line, Bijoux Art, was an easy one. She has explored multicultural archetypes throughout her career as a painter and ceramic artist, so when she started working with bronze metal clay to make her jewelry she had a ready supply of inspiration. “Pre-Columbian gold adornments and African gold amulets were just two influences that lent themselves well to bronze jewelry, which, when polished, takes on the warm glow of gold,” she says. “Also Gustav Klimt’s paintings often glow with gold, and their jewel-like quality inspired my use of Swarovski crystals embedded into the bronze.” Bronze metal clay has a similar feel, texture and consistency to earthenware clay; however, bronze particles are suspended in an organic binder that, once fired in a kiln, burn away, leaving the sculptor with pure bronze. “As a ceramic

artist, this process of arriving at bronze metal jewelry using a clay-like material was very appealing,” Tobias says. “After studying techniques and experimenting with its boundaries, I found that I was able to create my ideas in bronze with the same quality of refinement and detail that existed in my other work.” Bijoux Art offers one-of-a-kind handmade necklaces and earrings. Pieces can be purchased directly from her website or at the Form & Concept Gallery, in Santa Fe. [DH]

Papier-Mâché Animal Heads

MARK JONES markjonesart.com Wall decorations, prices vary If you are a staunch supporter of animal rights but admire the look of hunting trophies that decorate many a lodge and den, alumnus Mark Jones (BFA 2007 Illustration) has a handcrafted, tongue-in-cheek solution to your dilemma: papier-mâché animal heads. Working primarily as a children’s book illustrator based in London—forthcoming titles include What’s That Noise? (Igloo) and Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (Skyhorse)—Jones takes time on the side to craft his vegan, cruelty-free “taxidermy,” each piece of which is made to order. Though he has largely dealt in woodland creatures, Jones is willing to branch out and design any animal—whether imagined or real—that his customers desire. [MM]

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WHAT’S IN STORE

Bronx Native

AMAURYS GRULLON bronxnative.com Pins, T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts, $5 – $40

Fourth-year BFA Design student Amaurys Grullon is proud of his home borough of the Bronx. In 2015, after realizing that it doesn’t get the attention it deserves, he teamed up with his sister Roselyn, a fledgling fashion designer. They created Bronx Native, a clothing brand that represents the borough as the “strong, beautiful and diverse” place that it is, he says. The Grullons introduced their first line, featuring T-shirts and hoodies, last year, and promoted it at community events throughout the Bronx, on local TV and at New York Comic Con, where they shared a booth with Bronx-based publisher Creative One Comics. They’ve since enlisted three other Bronx-based creatives, including SVA graduate Kasey-Lynn Rodriguez (BFA 2016 Photography and Video), to help with outreach and other projects, including partnerships with artists, businesses and nonprofits in the borough. Meanwhile, brother and sister are hard at work on their next round of designs, including crew-neck sweaters, hats and jackets, which will be sold on bronxnative.com and, if all goes according to plan, at various Bronx shops. [MM & GH]

Studio Llama Llama

KAORI SAKAI studiollamallama.com Crocheted stuffed animals, $5 – $80 “I’ve always had a soft spot for stuffed animals,” says Kaori Sakai (BFA 2009 Graphic Design). “They cheered me up when I was sad and lonely and calmed me down when I would get upset.” The crocheted stuffed animals—or amigurumi, as such items are known in Japan—that Sakai sells through her company, Studio Llama Llama, are designed to be similarly comforting. Her playful creations include tiny spherical birds carrying removable handbags and oblong bears wearing removable dinosaur, lobster, octopus and bumblebee costumes, all crocheted in soft, colorful yarns by Sakai herself. [GH]

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Hand-Cut Acrylic Sculptures

ALEJANDRO DRON Whitney Museum Shop Small-scale sculptures, $125 – $525

Bakline

ROB SCHNABEL bakline.nyc Clothes and accessories, $15 – $125

ob Schnabel (BFA 2003 Advertising) did not get hooked on rugby until he was an undergraduate at SVA and introduced to the sport by his South African girlfriend. Despite becoming interested in the sport later in life, Schnabel is such a devoted fan that he left his career in advertising in 2008 to create Bakline, his rugby-inspired streetwear and lifestyle brand. Developed with his brother Matt Vosburgh, Bakline—an alternative spelling of the rugby term “backline”—offers men’s and women’s casual attire, gym wear and accessories like bandannas, dog SPR ING 20 1 7

tags and even baby onesies, all of which embody what Schnabel calls a “play hard, party harder mentality.” The company strives to give back, too. Schnabel and his team have designed shirts to raise money for disaster relief, created scholarship funds for young, aspiring rugby players and have participated in the New York City Marathon to raise money for prostate cancer research. They also are dedicated to being a sustainable brand, sourcing garments from companies with safe environmental and labor practices. [MM]

Artist Alejandro Dron (MFA 1998 Computer Art) is selling his small-scale acrylic sculptures at the shop at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York City. The Argentinian-born, New Jersey– based Dron—who was recently recognized with a grant from the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation—came to New York City in the mid-’90s to study at SVA on a Fulbright grant. He came with a substantial arts background, having studied as a child under Argentinian artist Oscar Zárate, and as a young adult under noted sculptor Gyula Kosice, founder of the Madí movement, which was dedicated to nonfigurative, concrete art. Dron continues to work according to Madí precepts, making “liminal,” plane-based sculptures out of a variety of materials and in a variety of sizes, and geometric-based drawings and prints, all of which seek to achieve what he calls “a sound dialogue between the positive and negative spaces.” “I believe that when a work is made with your body and mind—not only with your head—it achieves that kind of dialogue,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it is resized; it continues flowing with grace.” In addition to his fine-art practice, Dron is also a comics artist, having published two books tackling current events and philosophical quandaries featuring a triangle-shaped character named Zohar, whom he originally developed while working for Argentinian newspaper El Día in the ’80s. Zohar, Dron explains, is “a question mark. A witness. . . . A wind that shakes all dogma out.” Dron keeps his studio at Mana Contemporary, an arts complex in Jersey City, where he is currently working on sculptures small and large. For more information, visit alejandrodron.com or the artist’s Instagram: @alejandrodron. [GH]

CREATIVE LIFE

Navigating the great wide world of work

ANNA OGIER-BLOOMER

Parental Advisory by alexander gelfand

Achieving a satisfying work-life balance is never easy, and for artists with children it can be especially challenging. Many artists already find themselves pulled in several directions at once: by day jobs, graduate school, commissions, teaching gigs and freelance assignments that involve travel and irregular hours. Adding children to the mix, especially when they are young and require constant attention, can make things even more complicated. And that’s especially true if, as is often the case, money is tight. “As an artist, your priority should be your art. Otherwise, it’s never going to get done,” 18

says Qiana Mestrich, a photographer, mother of two and co-editor of How We Do Both: Art and Motherhood (Secretary Press), a collection of essays, now in its second edition, by artists such as Renée Cox (MFA 1992 Photography and Related Media) and Justine Kurland (BFA 1996 Photography). “The conundrum is, how do you make art when [your kids] are awake 10 to 12 hours a day?” There is no one answer to that question. But several members of the SVA community who are raising a family and managing a career in the arts have tips that any working parent might profit from. V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

EFFICIENCY IS KEY

OPPOSITE Artist Delano Dunn plays with his daughter,

Violet, in his Newark, New Jersey, studio. TOP Qiana Mestrich, Homemade, from the series “Trust Your Struggle,” 2010. BOTTOM Elinor Carucci, Bath, 2006. Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery.

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Children are a delight. They also require a tremendous investment of time and energy. So making full use of every available minute for your work is crucial. For multimedia artist Delano Dunn (MFA 2016 Fine Arts), planning ahead has been key to managing the competing demands of parenthood and career. Dunn, who is married to photographer Anna Ogier-Bloomer, an SVA Career Development assistant director (see sidebar, page 21), quit a full-time job at the Whitney Museum of American Art and enrolled in graduate school shortly after his daughter, Violet, was born three years ago. He also relocated his studio from the couple’s Brooklyn home to a space in Newark, New Jersey, to avoid exposing Violet to the chemicals he uses in his work. Yet despite his childcare responsibilities and the demands of his part-time job

as an installer for an interior designer, Dunn says that being a parent caused his productivity to jump to “the highest [level] it’s been in my career.” To do so, he has become ruthlessly efficient. With only five hours of studio time a day, Dunn plans every minute of it, from the moment he walks into the studio to the moment he leaves to pick Violet up from daycare. “There’s no slack,” he says. Any downtime— whether it’s during commutes or while Violet is happily occupied—is devoted to running through workrelated issues in his head, and plotting out compositions in advance. “It’s almost like playing chess,” he says. “I think through all the possibilities before I start to sketch. If I don’t, I’m more inclined to waste time in the studio, working things out on the canvas.”

CHRIS K WON

BE FLEXIBLE

While leaving the nine-tofive world may have been the right decision for Dunn, for filmmaker Anelisa Garfunkel (MFA 2016 Visual Narrative) the best solution for her and her family was to make the opposite move. Before she became a mother, Garfunkel was based in Boston and split her time between teaching in Maine and Massachusetts, and writing and directing short films and advocacy pieces. But after giving birth to her daughter, Lyra, four years ago, Garfunkel and 20

her husband—a freelance television producer who is on the road two to three weeks each month—moved to New York City. Shortly after that, Garfunkel discovered that constant travel and extended shooting days did not mesh well with her role as primary caregiver. So when SVA offered her a position as director of operations in the MPS Directing Program, she took it—with reservations. “I really didn’t want a desk job, but I didn’t really see a choice,” she says. In the end, however, taking a full-time job freed

Garfunkel from the pressure and stress of having to secure enough freelance work to make a living while simultaneously raising her daughter. And while her new situation came with new challenges—finding and paying for extended daycare is not easy, nor is spending the entire working day away from her child—the benefits outweighed the disadvantages, even after she decided to enroll in the MFA Visual Narrative Program and extend her time away from home each day by two hours or more.

Now that she is done with graduate school, Garfunkel can devote her time away from the office to Lyra and the writing and directing projects she still takes—but which she can now pick and choose as she likes. As a result, she says, “I feel like I’m doing much more creative and personal work.”

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OPPOSITE Elinor Carucci, Monday

morning, mother of two, 2010. Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery. LEFT Qiana Mestrich, Bath, from the series “Trust Your Struggle,” 2010.

EXPECT TURBULENCE

When Israeli-born photographer Elinor Carucci, who teaches in SVA’s MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department, decided to start a family, she also decided to document the experience, photographing herself and her children, twins Eden and Emmanuelle. A decade’s worth of photographs resulted in a deeply personal monograph, Mother (Prestel, 2013), which includes images of Carlucci and her family at mundane yet intimate moments— breastfeeding and bath time, haircuts and tears. Although many of the images evoke the tender side of motherhood, the period it chronicled— from pregnancy to late childhood—was also highly turbulent. Just the experience of giving birth to twins, Carucci says, was borderline traumatic. After they were born, she was reluctant to pay for childcare or accept help from family, including her own husband. In retrospect, she

says, “I was crazy. . . . One side of me wanted someone to take over responsibility, but the other side wanted to do it all.” At the same time, having already achieved a measure of professional success (Mother was her third monograph), she was determined not to neglect her work, taking part in no fewer than seven group and solo shows in her first year of motherhood. Carucci now wonders whether she might have been less stressed, and therefore more patient, with her children if she hadn’t shouldered so much alone. But she also realizes that, had she done things differently, she would probably regret the missed opportunities and memories. “You can never be perfect or even close to perfect,” she says. “[But] you’ll find the right balance to be the kind of parents you want to be.” ♥ ALEXANDER GELFAND has

contributed to The Economist, The New York Times and Wired, among other publications.

RESOURCES FOR ARTIST–PARENTS . . .

The challenges of raising a family while pursuing a career in the arts are infinitely variable. Earlier this month, SVA Career Development and the College’s MPS Digital Photography Department hosted a panel discussion on the topic, moderated by Career Development’s Anna Ogier-Bloomer and featuring Qiana Mestrich and other artist-parents (watch it on the Career Development playlist at youtube.com/svanewyorkcity), that raised as many questions as it offered answers. However, there are a number of available resources that may be of help, including Ogier-Bloomer’s following recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How We Do Both: Art and Motherhood (Secretary Press, 2012), Eds. Michi Jigarjian and Qiana Mestrich Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood (Seven Stories Press, 2001), by Moyra Davey . . . . . . . . . . WEBSITES AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES . . . . . . . . . . Cultural Reproducers www.culturalreproducers.org Center for Parenting Artists centerforparentingartists.wordpress.com Mater Mea matermea.com Artist Parent Index artistparentindex.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Women’s Studio Workshop Parent Residency Grant wsworkshop.org The Millay Colony for the Arts Virtual Residency millaycolony.org

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PORTFOLIO

Inka Essenhigh

by dan halm

heir beauty is undeniable, the fluidity of form and motion breathtaking. The paintings of Inka Essenhigh

(MFA 1994 Fine Arts) resonate with overwhelming power and grace while possessing an otherworldly charm and distinctive voice. Everything is animated in Essenhighâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world: normally stationary objects move and interact; figures pulsate and contort into one another. Her work inhabits a brightly colored landscape of shapes and distortions.

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Inka Essenhigh, Earth and Sea, 2016, enamel on panel.

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Inka Essenhigh, Fog Spruce with Orange Fungus, 2017, enamel on panel.

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Inka Essenhigh, Seaside Cemetery, 2016, enamel on panel.

In her latest series of paintings, which appear on these pages, Essenhigh mines the beauty and stillness of cemeteries and the dynamics of trees. “If I go to a forest, I see groupings of trees and I see gangs. I see them pushing at each other,” she says. “There are actually big dramas going on in nature all the time in a slow-motion kind of way, and it’s fun to anthropomorphize that.” It is up to the viewer to decide whether the tension in these paintings is playful or sinister. Essenhigh relishes her work’s ambiguity—it mirrors the indescribable but powerful effect that a particular landscape or place can have on a visitor. “It’s got a particular vibe or charge to it, and you are changed from it, even if you can’t spell it out,” she says. After a few years of working mostly with oil paint—largely for its ability, she says, to capture light and communicate space—she recently went back to making her signature enamel paintings. Although enamel paint doesn’t have the richness or depth of oils, she says it enables her to explore a larger, brighter color palette. “I like to sit down and wait for the colors to come to me,” she says. “Sometimes I can’t quite find it in my head, and I’ll just start mixing colors and I’ll find it when I see it.” Such experimentation is what allows her to SPR ING 20 1 7

move beyond the traditional color tropes and bring a stainedglass-like quality to her most recent paintings. A commonality behind all of Essenhigh’s work is her lively imagination. Though her observation of real places loosely inspires her, she paints without any references on hand. Freed from the limitations imposed by “the real world,” she is able to pursue truly original forms. “Why can’t it be something from your mind that you haven’t seen or heard of yet?” she says. “Why not give that a fighting chance? I want more of that in the world—something special.” Essenhigh’s work is concerned not just with aesthetics, but the power of one’s own thoughts. “I believe you can change the world with beauty, that it is a political statement,” she says. “If you were to imagine peace on earth, what would you imagine it look and feel like? Why not go ahead and make the world you want to live in, and believe that that kind of consciousness will affect other people?” Essenhigh is represented by Ameringer McEnery Yohe in New York, and her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. For more information, visit inka-essenhigh.com. ✸

Inka Essenhigh, Sitting Spruce, 2016, enamel on panel.

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Inka Essenhigh, Spruce, 2016, enamel on panel.

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Inka Essenhigh, Grey Men, 2015, enamel on aluminum.

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Inka Essenhigh, Monsters of Manhattan, 2016, oil and enamel on panel.

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Inka Essenhigh, New Condos, 2016, enamel on panel; Political Cartoon Painting, 2016, enamel on panel.

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

Inka Essenhigh, Spring Forest, 2016, oil and enamel on canvas.

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TLIGH

TOKYO Visual Arts Journal continues to spotlight cities and countries where SVA alumni live, work and contribute to the local art and design community. In this issue: Tokyo, home to many graduates of the College, including the following four.

by Patrick St. Michel

YOKO FURUSHO BFA 2008 Illustration

oko Furusho has been back in her hometown of Tokyo for about a year now, a fact that still surprises her a bit. “I really wanted to study art when I was 18, but my parents didn’t want me to. They thought I couldn’t make a living,” she says. “So I thought if I went abroad, they couldn’t reach me.” That led her to SVA and then more than a decade in New York City working as an illustrator. But now she’s back and—rest easy, parents—doing well. 32

When we meet at a cafe in the center of Tokyo’s lively Shinjuku district, Furusho says she has slowed down a bit over the last year, partially due to having a baby. But as she describes what she has been up to, it doesn’t seem like she has. In the past several months, she has designed a line of fairy tale-themed goods and art for ballet store Chacott, illustrated a series of Japanese children’s books called Eetokoro and helped design a series of toys for a French company. Her personal artwork, which puts a fantastical and colorful spin on mundane daily life, has gotten a fair

amount of attention, too. In 2015, Osaka’s Hankyu Department Store gave her a huge exhibition space to display her work as part of a New York fair. “I’m not really an outgoing person; I like staying in my place. I mostly draw from my experience to make my art—I express whatever is on my mind,” she says. Furusho isn’t sure how long she’ll live in Tokyo— her husband’s job brought them here and could take them elsewhere in a couple of years—but she wants to help change the perception of illustrators in Japan while she can. “The field here has a bad reputation,” she says. “People think you are a loser

if you are an illustrator.” To that end, she has started giving lectures on how to make a living from art and wants to keep sharing the message to change the mindset she knows all too well.

OPPOSITE Yoko Furusho,

Holiday Sale Disaster (editorial illustration), 2015, ink and Photoshop. Yoko Furusho portrait by Retsu Motoyoshi.

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RIE TOMITA BFA 2003 Photography

t one time, Rie Tomita was so focused on drawing that the Okayama-born artist thought she would study it when she went to college, but the daunting process of getting in—determined by exam—turned her against it. After studying a little bit of everything at Musashino Art University, she started working as a graphic designer and became enamored with photography. As she learned more, she realized all her favorite photographers were American. So she moved to New York in 1998, and transferred to SVA after two years at a community college. “It was the best decision I ever made,” she says. “It was very competitive, and that helped me improve so much.” 34

After graduating, Tomita returned to Tokyo and established herself as a commercial and editorial photographer, shooting for magazines such as Japanese music publication Rockin’ On, GQ Japan and Nylon. She also worked with companies ranging from Kirin Brewery to Warner Music Japan. In 2008, she joined the faculty of a photography school in Tokyo, a job she still holds today. “I didn’t expect it to influence my personal work so much,” she says. “The students ask so many good questions, they get me thinking.” Her passion project since 2007, though, is traveling to New Mexico every year to take photos of the desert landscape and the people that live in it. She has taken hundreds of photos, from Native American communities to abandoned gas stations. Tomita plans to put

the best of this work into her first photo book, possibly by next year. “I don’t think the project as a whole will ever be completed,” she says, citing her deep fascination with the area, coupled with all the areas of the state she still hasn’t seen. She is already planning her next trip for 2017 and is also eyeing a trip to Ohio. But despite her abiding interest in the United

States, Tomita has no plans to move back. “If I lived there, I think it would be hard to have the same perspective I do now.”

FROM TOP Rie Tomita, Project

1-1, 2014, C-print; Project 1-2, 2016, C-print. Rie Tomita portrait by M.A.

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KATSUMI HAYAKAWA MFA 1999 Fine Arts

hough he was equipped with a degree from a Japanese art school, Katsumi Hayakawa’s early years in the workforce felt directionless and unfulfilling. “I was doing part-time jobs, like cleaning windows and hotel rooms,” he says. “Washing dishes . . . stuff like that.” One day in 1994, he saw an advertisement for SVA and applied for the MFA Fine Arts program. He got in. “That was my first time traveling outside of the country,” he recalls with a laugh. “I felt very free.” While at SVA, Hayakawa experimented with plaster and showed off his creations at nearby galleries. After graduating in 1998, he decided to live in New York a while longer, as its art market was much stronger than Tokyo’s. He ended up staying for almost 15 years. “My wife, who also studied at SVA, wanted to come back to Tokyo,” he says. (Hayakawa is married to Chie Hayakawa, a filmmaker and BFA 2001 Photography graduate.) The couple found a large apartment just outside the city’s center and

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Hayakawa focused on selling his art to overseas galleries. Now his go-to material is paper, which he carefully folds and arranges into intricate designs, including miniature skyscrapers that were featured at a 2014 exhibition in Spain called “Void and Solid.” “I also use a lot of plastic. I want to combine the two materials, and it’s a metaphor for nature versus artifice,” he says. “It’s about figuring out what modernity is in Japan, and I want to dig into that.” Hayakawa has had exhibitions in galleries in places like Houston, Taipei and Munich. Luxury goods manufacturer Louis Vuitton has commissioned him to make artwork for its stores in Tokyo and London. This February, he contributed a piece for a charity auction at Christie’s Hong Kong auction house. “There isn’t much of an art market in Tokyo, and I often question why it’s so tough to have an exhibition here,” he says. “It’s hard to keep motivated, but that’s why I look to the outside.”

FROM TOP Katsumi Hayakawa,

Fatamorgana, 2015; Bonsai City (detail), 2014; Elements (detail), 2011. All works acid-free paper and mixed media. Katsumi Hayakawa portrait by Chie Hayakawa.

JAZ HAROLD BFA 2008 Illustration

or the eight years after graduating SVA that she lived in New York, Jaz Harold would travel to Tokyo once a year. Many of her friends during this period kept moving back to Tokyo, so she always had a place to stay. Eventually, she decided to move to the neon-lit metropolis herself, and enrolled in a local language school. “My main incentive really was to see the world,” she says, sitting at a quiet cafe in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district. “I moved here when I was 29, and I thought if I stayed in New York longer, I would end up buying an apartment and settling down. I’d miss my chance.” Born in Connecticut, Harold had always wanted to live in New York, and was drawn to SVA. Once she graduated, she started working as an assistant to artist Urs Fischer, a job she still does “for about two days a week” from Tokyo. She also has made a name for herself through her sculptures, pastel and

soft but with sexual elements present. Galleries from New York City to Genova, Italy, have exhibited her works, which heavily utilize quartz crystals and flowers. “I still make art here in Tokyo, but probably only one major sculpture every three months,” she says. “I didn’t realize it was pretty much impossible to get studio space in Tokyo. I make everything in my apartment now. I used to be able to make things that were the size of where I live now.” The desire for studio space is one reason that she plans to return to New York once her student visa expires in Tokyo. But for now, she is focused on continuing her language studies and traveling around the rest of Japan as much as she can. “I’ll be much happier going back knowing I saw a completely different culture, exploring that and learning the language,” she says. ✸

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE Jaz Harold, Let

Go, 2016, silicone, quartz crystals, faux flowers, fabric, Poly-Fil, thread and PVC; Our Little World, It Dreams of Us (detail), collaboration with Yoko Furusho, 2015, fabric, thread, Poly-Fil, Styrofoam, nylon cord and metal washer; Communication, 2015, silicone, faux flowers, fabric, Poly-Fil, thread, plaster and quartz crystal.

PATRICK ST. MICHEL has

contributed to The Atlantic, The Fader and Pitchfork, among other publications. He lives in Tokyo.

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Q+A PETER SVARZBEIN

ALE X DUR AN

by michael hoinski

he art of Peter Svarzbein (MFA 2011 Photography, Video and Related Media) imitated life to such a degree that his life now imitates his art. As a city council member in El Paso, Texas, Svarzbein is overseeing the reintroduction of an electric trolley line that ran through the city and across the border into Juarez, Mexico, from 1902 to 1974. In 2018, the old track—complete with the original streetcars, restored with modern amenities—will reopen for public use on the U.S. side of the border. The $97 million endeavor, funded by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), is a result, in part, of Svarzbein’s 2011 MFA thesis project at SVA. Svarzbein had wanted to do a project that blurred the lines of conceptual, fine and performance art. He also wanted to express his identity as a border resident. The light went on in 2010, when a Google search yielded an image of the defunct streetcars. Svarzbein, an El Paso native, had never heard about them before and was intrigued. Employing his skills as an editorial and commercial photographer, he created an advertising campaign to promote a fictional El Paso–Juarez 38

streetcar line, with collateral featuring a character named Alex, the trolley’s conductor and “the border’s newest hero.” On trips to El Paso during his thesis year, Svarzbein wheat-pasted his trolley posters onto walls and hosted pop-up events to build faux awareness. After graduation, he moved back to El Paso to turn make-believe into reality. He began collecting signatures to add a real trolley initiative on a 2012 bond measure. Though unsuccessful, his efforts caught the attention of TxDOT, which included the project in a $2.2 billion multimodal transportation package. Svarzbein continued to invest his creative equity in El Paso. He served on a board to reimagine the city’s historic San Jacinto Plaza and he began teaching at the local outpost of the Texas Tech University College of Architecture. Inspired by his community, Svarzbein ran for and won a city council seat in 2015. He is learning how to navigate bureaucracy and plans to run again in 2018. After all, he has business to finish: reconnecting the line all the way to Juarez and destigmatizing the act of border crossing. V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

Why were you inspired by the old streetcar image you found online?

The trolley is a beautiful metaphor for what it means to be from El Paso and the region. Border crossing defines us, from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor. We have 80,000 people a day who cross the border. And we have 80,000 people who cross back at the end of the day. This is not illegal immigration, it’s not people going off into the distance. It’s people who are waking up every day to work in El Paso, or who live in El Paso and have a series of veterinary clinics and they drive over every single day to work in Juarez, and then they come back to El Paso. That’s the reality. And that’s what’s not understood within this larger conversation we’re having about border security. Border security for us here is being able to have goods and people—human capital, with their ideas and their investments—cross the border in a safe and efficient manner. That’s our challenge and opportunity. What was the scope of your thesis project?

I had one instructor who could not understand the concept. She could not understand why you would want to have a border that people would want to cross because for her, borders are there to keep people out. They’re not things to play with. They’re not things to cross. They’re not places that create a third way, where you’re neither here nor there. And I think one of the most fascinating things about El Paso is that it is that third space. The entire U.S.–Mexico border is that. But when I presented at the review committee, my instructor started clapping. She said, “I really had my doubts. I thought you were biting off a lot more than you could do. All I can say is dream as big as you want to because you’ll figure out a way to make it happen.” OPPOSITE Peter Svarzbein strategizes during his 2015 campaign for El Paso

City Council. BELOW A wheat-paste poster goes up as part of Svarzbein’s 2011 El Paso Transnational Trolley Project. BOTTOM Workers load defunct streetcars from the original El Paso-Juarez trolley line onto truck flatbeds. Beginning next year, the restored cars will again travel the El Paso portion of the line.

PETER SVARZBEIN

I recorded a series of video ads that imagined this bored guy and girl in El Paso. And they’re like, “There’s nothing to do. . . . Oh, let’s go take the trolley [to Juarez].” And all of a sudden the conductor magically appears. And then I created these posters of over-the-top, militantly positive ideas, concepts and sayings—“Let Us Take You Home on Either Side of the Border,” “The Future Is Arriving on Time. On the Border. Again.”—as a way to imagine something better. And that was kind of it: if we’re going to have something better for the border, we have to imagine what that can look like. It’s sort of utilizing the framework of an ad campaign to talk about these real issues. And it confused people because this was, like, 2010, 2011. In 2010, more people were killed in Juarez than were killed in all of Afghanistan. So there were a lot of puzzled faces like, what are you talking about, going to Mexico?

How was the thesis received by SVA?

PETER SVARZBEIN

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ALE X DUR AN

Donald Trump says he’s building a wall between Mexico and the United States. Is it realistic to think the trolley will ever reconnect to Juarez?

To me that’s the biggest opportunity. I’ve placed legislation already to look into doing a feasibility study for a passengeroriented, multimodal transportation system. The question becomes, what makes most sense? Is it a vintage streetcar line? Is it a new pedestrian-only bridge that has a shuttle light rail in between it? When we talk about how you go and make the most for a 21st-century economy, you have to be able to have people cross the border in an effective way. If Trump is a businessman, he should understand that there is value in this region from an economic point of view, and that if you want to talk about security, border security is tied into economic security and opportunity. If you want to cut down on the influence of cartels, the best way to do it is by providing good jobs and creating more infrastructure and more economic drivers. If I could get five minutes alone with him, that’s what I would discuss. Do you miss being an artist?

I’m still struggling that I have to give up one for the other. I never thought that at 36, I’d be running for this and at 40, I’m running for this. I don’t know what exactly the next steps are. I would continue teaching if I could, but the city charter does not allow employment through two public institutions. But I still have a gallery downtown, Purple, which I own and run. I 40

Svarzbein gathering signatures for his 2015 run for office.

still photograph. I have a 10-year project I’ve been working on: Latino families who believe they’re descendants of Spanish Jews who had converted to Catholicism under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Have you ever heard the term “cryptoJews” before? I photographed religious conversions back to Judaism in Santo Marta, Colombia; in Mexicali, Mexico; in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and in El Paso and Odessa, Texas. How did being an artist equip you for politics?

The thing that was serendipitous for me, politically, was that I . . . had people who knew my family or knew me. And also I had been a big advocate for civic engagement and the arts through different downtown initiatives, as well as the trolley, since I got back. I think having that combination helped me. But at the end of the day, I think that an artist is able to see the world not as it is, but what it can be. Politics is a medium the same way painting, sculpture or photography is one. There is a certain set of rules that apply within that medium. Rules are meant to be broken, too, but there are certain ways that a medium works that you need to understand and sort of work within. ✸ MICHAEL HOINSKI is a regular contributor to Texas Monthly and

The New York Times. He lives in Austin, Texas. V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

PETER SVARZBEIN PETER SVARZBEIN

TOP An actor portraying Alex, the “hero” of Svarzbein’s El Paso Transnational

ALE X DUR AN

Trolley Project, sits in a pre-restored streetcar. LEFT Khalil Zaied, El Paso’s deputy city manager for public works and transportation, and Svarzbein pose with a group of Mexican schoolchildren at the El Paso-Juarez border. ABOVE Workers restore the El Paso trolley line, scheduled to reopen in 2018.

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Â© RICK Y ZEHAVI 2017

Window DRESSING BY A NN BINLOT

Alumnus Elliott De Cesare’s art finds its way into Bergdorf Goodman’s windows. SPR ING 20 1 7

f you happened to be on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in March, you may have seen them. Four groupings of stockstill figures in black-tie attire, each planted amid a riot of color and surrounded by half-formed figures and everyday detritus—a foil balloon, lotto scratch-offs, playing cards. These scenes filled the storefront windows of the men’s store at legendary retailer Bergdorf Goodman, as part of its Made to Measure promotion, which offers free custom fitting and detailing of Bergdorf suits. All were created using the artwork of Elliott De Cesare (BFA 2011 Illustration). De Cesare has been making backdrops, props and effects for Bergdorf’s famously whimsical installations since he was a student at SVA. The work is something of a family trade. His father,

who worked on the windows at Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan in the 1980s, would store props around the family’s Hudson Valley home. “He would take me to work on certain jobs, but he always had objects and strange things in our house,” De Cesare says. “Mannequins and a pencil that’s seven feet tall and things like that.” Near the end of his last year in college, De Cesare’s father connected him with Linda Fargo, the senior vice president of fashion at Bergdorf Goodman, who offered him a spot on the window team’s roster of freelance artists and craftspeople. He since has worked on a number of high-profile displays by David Hoey, Bergdorf’s senior director for visual presentation, and Shane Ruth, visual director of Bergdorf’s men’s store. He has also contributed to window displays for Furla, American Eagle

and other stores, and styled props for fashion photo shoots, all while pursuing his personal fine-art practice. A Bergdorf display can take months of planning. The holiday windows, for example, are conceived about a year ahead of time, with production beginning long before the actual project is installed. De Cesare and the others on the team spend that time designing, decorating and building props and sets at Bergdorf’s Long Island City studio. Among De Cesare’s notable projects for Bergdorf were its spring 2013 windows, which coincided with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition “PUNK: Chaos as Couture,” and its winter 2014 windows commemorating the Chinese zodiac’s year of the horse. For the “PUNK” windows, De Cesare says, “David wanted to do a scene that would resemble the inside of CBGB’s,” the famous downtown club where influential acts like Blondie and the Ramones played some of their earliest shows. “So I produced a graffiti wall backdrop with two other artists who assisted me.” For the year of the horse display, De Cesare and a coworker dedicated four days to covering the installation’s model horses in colored tape. “You couldn’t really tell that it was tape if you were to look at the window,” he says. “It just looked like lit-up, striped, beautiful horses. David had the idea, but he needs people to make it look good and compose them.” The Made to Measure installation was based a series of multimedia works De

Elliott De Cesare’s working sketches and mockups for his winter 2017 Bergdorf installation.

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Cesare completed in 2015, titled “Desperate Attempts at Communication.” All took as their inspiration the ideas of indeterminate phases, as exemplified in the famous “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment—which posits that a state of existence is not settled unless it is observed—and “contemporary labyrinths,” De Cesare says, as embodied in disposable games and puzzles, lottery tickets in particular. “At one point a few years ago I began collecting scratch-offs off the street. . . . I saw all of the people who once held these tickets and realized that, for one moment, they were neither winners nor losers until they scratched the ticket and observed themselves as one or the other. I began viewing the tickets, and my series of work incorporating them, as an existential equivalent to the Schrödinger’s cat paradox.” Last year, De Cesare showed some of the paintings to Ruth, who is responsible for the look of the Bergdorf men’s store’s interiors and windows, and Ruth invited him to develop an installation. De Cesare sketched out some concepts and created additional paintings and sculptures to fill out the window scenes, all in the same vein as the original series. “Elliott is a talented artist, and his artistic sensibility is an integral part of our visual program,” Ruth says. “Combining the precision of menswear tailoring with the layered narrative of Elliott’s art setting was a concept we were excited to present. His free-form, bold strokes contrasted and complemented the traditional suiting featured in Made to Measure.” As is the case with most of Bergdorf’s windows, once completed, De Cesare’s installation was photographed by fellow SVA graduate Ricky Zehavi (BFA 1988 Photography), of Zehavi and Cordes Photography. Those photographs, as well as De Cesare’s concept sketches and several individual works from the installation, are reproduced here. To see more of De Cesare’s work, visit elliottdecesare.com. ✸ ANN BINLOT has written about art, culture

and fashion for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, W magazine and Forbes, among other publications.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Elliott De Cesare,

Terrestrial Material System, Quantum Scratch Off and 11 Ways to Stay Out of Trouble, 2015. All works painting and multimedia.

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COLOR COMMENTARY

Christoph Niemann

by greg herbowy

This fall, SVA will honor author, graphic designer and illustrator Christoph Niemann with its 29th Masters Series award and exhibition. Established in 1988 by SVA founder Silas H. Rhodes as a way to honor the great visual communicators of our time, the Masters Series brings greater exposure to those whose influence has been felt strongly and by many, but whose names often go unrecognized by the public. Over his two-decade career, Niemann has worked with a range of publications and corporations, building a prolific body of work distinguished by its visual humor and inventiveness. Niemann has illustrated the New York City Marathon—while running it—for The New York Times. He has animated his drawings for Google Doodles (temporary reinventions of the logo on the search engine’s homepage) and created animated and interactive digital versions of his cover illustrations for The New Yorker. He has created two apps: Petting Zoo, which allows users to distort, augment and animate his drawings, and Chomp, which offers 52 animated scenes into which users can incorporate their own videos. And he has written and/or illustrated more than a dozen books, most recently Sunday Sketching (Abrams, 2016), an in-depth look at his creative process, and Souvenir (Diogenes, 2017), a collection of his travel-inspired art. In advance of his exhibition, Visual Arts Journal asked Niemann to select and talk about some of his work, presented here as this issue’s Color Commentary. “The Masters Series: Christoph Niemann” Christoph Niemann, cover for American will be on view from September 30 through Illustration XX (HarperCollins, 2001). November 4 at the SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West hen American Illustration asked Niemann to illustrate the cover of its 20th 26th Street, 15th floor. A reception will be held anthology, they suggested “something pornographic”—a play on the XX in the publiat the gallery on Tuesday, October 3, from 6:00 cation’s title. Niemann’s solution: a toothbrush embracing a bead of toothpaste. “Once you’re to 8:00pm. Niemann will discuss his work at an given a topic, you can run through different visual metaphors that represent the idea and try to artist talk on Monday, October 2, from 7:00 to mess with them,” Niemann says. “So sex or hug9:00pm at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street. ging or a close encounter between lovers—what are two things that also have a close relationship All events will be free and open to the public. and complement each other?”

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Christoph Niemann, Creative Process, 2012, three-color silk screen, edition of 50.

iemann originally drew this image as part of a visual essay about the “tricky, slow” work of coming up with ideas, a subject he returns to often in his work and writes about at length in Sunday Sketching. Though he offers no magic solution, he has found that treating his job like, well, a job helps. “I keep fairly strict hours,” he says. “An all-nighter seems like a good idea and the ‘tough’ thing to do, but you always pay the price of three days of subpar work afterward. . . . There’s surprising wisdom in the whole 9-to-5 routine.”

OPPOSITE Christoph Niemann, Design and Violence, 2014, two-color silk screen, edition of 100.

n 2013, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, introduced “Design and Violence,” an online project about the role of design in violence (and vice versa) organized in part by SVA faculty member Paola Antonelli, the museum’s senior curator of architecture and design. Niemann created two animations for the project, both of which he later adapted into silk screens. MoMA added this silk screen, in which a soldier builds an espresso maker out of machine-gun parts, to their collection last year. “I’ve always loved the idea of soldiers who can assemble their guns blindfolded,” Niemann says. “It’s the idea of the military defining itself through skill and competition, rather than through violence.”

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Christoph Niemann, images from “Sunday Sketches,” 2014 – 2015, mixed media.

or about a year and a half beginning in 2014, Niemann pursued a weekly “exercise in seeing” he called “Sunday Sketches.” “I would take an everyday object, without any idea of what I could turn it into, and really stare at it to train my eye to see unexpected things,” he says. So an avocado half became a baseball player’s glove, with the pit standing in for the ball; a pair of iPhone earbuds stood in for a mosquito’s compound eyes, with the tangled cord its body and the plug its stinger; an upside-down poppy-seed roll turned into a man’s stubbly chin. After “completing the thought” with a drawing, Niemann would post the image to his Instagram account, @abstractsunday. Many of these illustrations, including the two on this spread, appear in Sunday Sketching.

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Christoph Niemann, cover illustrations for the October 6, 2014 (left), and March 23, 2015, issues of The New Yorker.

iemann has illustrated for The New Yorker for 20 years. In that time, he has created some 25 covers for the weekly magazine, and drawn hundreds of cartoons for its Financial Page column. Ideas for covers are usually the illustrator’s, and tied to some seasonal or topical theme. For the Financial Page, Niemann is told the subject three or four days in advance, a time frame he finds fairly generous for such jobs. “For the first five to 10 years of my career, I did a lot

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of work for The New York Times editorial page,” he says. “Very often I would get the assignment only two or three hours before the deadline. The fastest one was 45 minutes. It would completely freak me out, but in retrospect it was the best training one could possibly have.” Recently, Niemann has been developing “augmented” digital versions of his covers: animating the illustrations or creating 360-degree versions of them. An episode of the 2017 Netflix docu-series Abstract shows him at work on a 2016 animated cover, depicting New York City’s skyline. In the online edition of the cover at left, raindrops streak down the car windshield. 53

Christoph Niemann, photo-drawings from the artist’s personal collection.

ometimes I have a photo [that I took] that just sits there,” Niemann says. “It’s like 80 percent there, but something is missing, and I’ll find a drawing to complement it.” Begun, as with “Sunday Sketches,” as a creative-thinking exercise, Niemann’s photo-drawings have found their way into some of his assignments, including illustrated reported pieces he wrote for The New York Times on Brazil’s 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2011 Venice Biennale. In Sunday Sketching, Niemann compares his “silly” experimental work, to which he tries to dedicate one day per week, to Google’s famous policy of allowing its employees regular time to pursue whimsical personal projects—both practices are “a license to look for interesting solutions without worrying about what kinds of problems they might solve,” he writes. “Most of my experiments are fun. . . . But each one increases the chance of finding a direction that might save my butt in the distant future.” ✸

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OPEN Concept Expanding the Idea of Universal Design BY ANGELA RIECHERS

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ON THIS SPREAD MFA Products of Design faculty

member Rafael Smith came up with the idea for Uber Shelter—flat-pack, easy-to-assemble emergency housing—while still an undergraduate, and traveled to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to put his design to work. But “within a few days of being on the ground,” he says, “I realized that we solved the wrong problem.” Photos by Laurel Cummings, courtesy Rafael Smith.

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DESIGN

is a process by which we improve our world by shaping the objects, environments and systems in it, from the mundane (cupcake tins, lawnmowers) to multi-authored intangibles (governments, social media platforms). A “good” design not only supplies elegant or excellent performance, it is also approachable and accessible. It is natural, then, that “universal design” has become a buzzword. The concept has obvious appeal. And design requirements that prioritize accessibility, like those enforced by the Americans with Disabilities Act, have improved countless lives. But is such a thing as universal design—something that works equally well for all people—truly possible? If so, what does it look like? Or, to be truly inclusive, do designs need to be adaptable to address the needs of differing audiences? 58

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CHAPPELL ELLISON

(MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism) is a writer, editor, content strategist and design advocate, and MFA 2010 Design Criticism graduate. Ellison has collaborated with Etsy, Design Observer, the City of New York, and the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of the Moving Image, both in New York. She is a senior content strategist at Huge, in Brooklyn.

TED SOUTHERN

(MFA Interaction Design) is an artist and inventor, and cofounder of Final Frontier Design, a space suit design and manufacturing company based in Brooklyn that has won several awards and contracts with NASA for its work.

To get a sense of how designers across various fields are thinking about universal design, Visual Arts Journal spoke with these SVA instructors:

JENNIFER RIT TNER

(MFA Products of Design) is an educator and writer, and founder of the communications strategy firm Content Matters, which helps creative businesses communicate effectively with diverse audiences. A former project manager for international design consultancy Pentagram, she has taught critical thinking, art and design history, and design management at numerous schools, museums and cultural institutions.

R AFAEL SMITH

K ARRIE JACOBS

(MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism) is a contributing editor at Architect Magazine. For 10 years, Jacobs wrote a monthly column, “America,” for Metropolis. Jacobs was the founding editor-in-chief of Dwell, a San Francisco-based magazine about modern residential architecture, and has served as the architecture critic for New York.

(MFA Products of Design) is a design lead at IDEO.org, where he works on product and systems design for winning ideas from IDEO.org’s Amplify program, which supports organizations pursuing solutions to humanitarian crises all over the world. Prior to joining IDEO.org, Smith was lead designer at Solar Mosaic, an online investment platform for clean energy, as well as an industrial design consultant and founder of Uber Shelter, which created emergency housing for communities affected by natural disasters.

JACK TR AVIS

(BFA Interior Design) is an architect and interior designer who established his namesake studio in 1985. Since then, he has completed high-profile interiors projects for a range of private and commercial clients. Travis’s firm is under contract as cultural consultants for the second phase of construction of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Second Avenue Subway project, in Manhattan.

CHRISTINA XU

(MFA Interaction Design) is a writer and independent ethnographer currently focused on the social implications around Chinese and U.S. technology. Xu is a trustee of the New York City chapter of the Awesome Foundation, which awards micro-grants to noteworthy arts, design and community-development projects, and an adviser to Orbital, a co-working community and space in Manhattan, and the Data & Society Research Institute, which focuses on social and cultural issues that arise from data-centric technological development.

“Design is the art of visualizing ideas.” —JESSICA HELFAND, DESIGNER AND AUTHOR

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Space suit by Final Frontier Design, a company that creates made-tomeasure apparel for astronauts. Image courtesy Final Frontier Design.

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Ellison: Technology that’s really in-

tuitive and makes sense seems to be a good example of universal design, but the devices that deliver that technology aren’t necessarily designed well for everyone. Look at a smartphone—kids understand it immediately, but it’s not ergonomic, not shaped well for anyone with arthritis, Parkinson’s or other hand mobility-limiting conditions. But things like Amazon Echo are valuable for people with visual impairment or mobility issues. I don’t know if designers are specifically thinking about these benefits when designing these devices. Twitter recently rolled out the ability to use alt tags, which are descriptive embedded photo captions that a screen reader can read out loud along with the text, so a user with vision impairment can “see” pictures accompanying a tweet. The fact that Twitter did this is really cool; they’re thinking about giving an equal experience to someone who previously had no way of accessing the images.

devised the emergency shelters that the IKEA Foundation funded with the United Nations. The shelters pack flat and are easy to assemble, and come with one of those pictorial instruction sheets. But when the team tested the prototypes in a camp in Ethiopia for Somalian refugees, nobody thought to look at the instructions. The idea of following step-by-step pictures to assemble something was not in their culture or frame of reference. And having big windows for ventilation, as these shelters did, caused privacy issues. Smith: Design is contextual. We focus

on output being universal, but maybe we should focus on input being universal instead. What would it look like to equip a broader group of people with the skills to design rather than try to make designs that are accessible to a wider group of people? I spent three years designing emergency shelters before IKEA started their project. My team thought if we could

“Design is contextual. We focus on output being universal, but maybe we should focus on input being universal instead.” Xu: In China, WeChat is the ubiquitous

messaging app. To stay in touch, one person pulls up a QR code on WeChat and one person pulls up a scanner, and that’s how they add each other. I’m interested in the emerging conventions around who decides who provides the QR code and who scans. Someone said, “It’s more polite for me to offer to be scanned, because it’s like presenting someone with a business card,” which has great social context in China. Another person said, “It’s more polite for me to scan, because then we’re using my data plan instead of yours.” When WeChat designers created that feature, I don’t think they anticipated that layer of developing social etiquette. Where does culture end and context begin? Maybe there is no difference, and I become wary when people talk about concepts like universal design for that reason. Jacobs: The question is whether there

even is such a thing as universal design. I spoke with the product designers who SPR ING 20 1 7

optimize the flattest pack, lowest cost, easiest-to-assemble shelter, we would finally solve the problem of substandard post-disaster housing. Within a few days of being on the ground and putting up these shelters after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, I realized that we solved the wrong problem. There were thousands of unemployed Haitian construction workers who could build housing there faster and cheaper than I could. Masterminding this thing manufactured in China was not the solution. We looked at the problem as if the only tool we had was a hammer and the only solution we had was a nail. Rittner: In MFA Products of Design, we

aren’t thinking about industrial design in the traditional sense of objects and products; we’re thinking about systems and services as well. By looking more deeply at systems or ways of life, you can create products and spaces that are more inclusive and meaningful. For instance, design for a kitchen frequently means creating surfaces and

systems for a person ready to make a perfect meal in a well-appointed space containing all the right products, as opposed to a person in a community where resources are shared and the value of the kitchen is social: learning or teaching how to cook, sharing recipes and skills, having the experience of being in that space together. Cooking in this context has nothing to do with having the perfect product or environment, it’s about the shareability of a communal endeavor. We want designers to consider all kinds of people and start to ask different questions. Travis: My firm is serving as cultural

consultant on the next phase of building New York City’s Second Avenue Subway, which will include stations at 106th, 116th and 125th Streets. What that means is I advise on proposals in terms of their appropriateness for the neighborhoods. For example, it’s good if the designs of each station include imaging native to the tradition of Puerto Rican people and peoples of African descent, instead of just being new, clean and functionally appropriate. We’re talking about Spanish Harlem meeting black Harlem as the train moves from east to west—those two cultures give Harlem the fame it enjoys today, and they encompass a lot of separate subcultures. We’re working with local community boards to make sure residents have a voice, that we aren’t just making choices without their input. There was a real need for another train station at 116th Street, which is a significant location in many ways. It’s where the Puerto Rican Day Parade ends, for one thing. The crowding on the Lexington Avenue line at 116th Street on parade day is always incredible. A new subway station just a few blocks away will be a huge convenience for the local population plus the thousands who traveled there to celebrate their heritage. When we talk about “inclusive” design here, we’re talking about public transportation that authentically marks and maps the rich cultural makeup and history of the neighborhood. It’s not just a way to get from point A to point B. It’s specifically designed to mean more than that. Jacobs: The notion of the complete

street is a relatively new idea in vogue in urban planning circles. It’s not about whether someone is handicapped but whether the street exists for all its users, not just for cars. Street design that safely accommodates all users is 61

Better Shelter, a collaboration between the UN Refugee Agency and the IKEA Foundation, provides emergency shelters to communities in need all over the world. More than 150 have been assembled to accommodate refugees in Lesvos, Greece, where they are used for housing, offices and health clinics. ÂŠ Better Shelter. All rights reserved.

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a form of universality. I once attended a conference in Amsterdam, where I decided to rent a bike to get back and forth from my hotel. I asked the guy in the bike rental place if he had a map of the bike routes, and he looked at me like I was crazy because basically all the roads there are bikeable. Southern: My company, Final Frontier

Design, builds custom space suits and gloves for NASA and private clients. For us, hand functionality would be the metric by which you judged our products’ universality. But this is a tough design problem that involves engineering tradeoffs—weight, cost, complexity,

Ellison: A progressive definition for

universal design is a thing you can use without being reminded of your limitations. It shouldn’t make you self-conscious. A wheelchair ramp is accessible design, but what’s really progressive is a building that has been designed so that the experience of the person on the ramp is just as important as that of the person using the steps. I remember an uproar on Twitter about a photograph of pre-peeled oranges at Whole Foods: “People are lazy”; “This is wasteful”; “It’s putting plastic in landfills.” Then other users started saying things like, “Hey, my mom has Parkinson’s and these are so

“A wheelchair ramp is accessible design, but what’s really progressive is a building that has been designed so that the experience of the person on the ramp is just as important as that of the person using the steps.” aesthetics—for gloves, tools and control buttons that are comfortable for a range of differently sized hands. Beyond gloves, NASA does try to provide for some sizing options in space suits. As we’ve designed our IVA [intra-vehicular activity] suit, we’ve tried to think hard about the demands of the anticipated future commercial market. Obviously there is going to be a need for a larger size range for people on Virgin Galactic flights than for those in the astronaut corps, where NASA can only accept people of a certain percentile BMI, height and weight. So is it even possible to think of a universal design solution here, or is the true universal design a custom one, since we are not a one-size-fits-all species? Currently the technology we use for customization is too expensive for mass-market applications, but this will change as it continues to evolve.

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helpful for her—it’s too difficult for her to peel an orange, but she can buy these and eat them, and it makes her feel like she doesn’t have a barrier to food.” I would like to think it’s possible to make something that works for everyone, that doesn’t have a negative impact on the world, but it’s difficult to do. ✸ ANGELA RIECHERS (MFA 2010 Design

Criticism) is an educator and writer and the coordinator of TypeLab: Theory and Practice, an SVA Summer Residency Program.

ALUMNI AFFAIRS

Snapshots from SVA Alumni Affairs and Development Director Jane Nuzzo’s fall 2016 Asia outreach trip.

Where Do We Go Now? A message from Jane Nuzzo, director of alumni affairs and development at SVA

✻

In the early hours immediately following last fall’s presidential election results (and as South Korea’s own political upheaval was beginning to unfold), I arrived in Seoul with some of my SVA colleagues to attend a big alumni reception. The trip was part of a larger Asia outreach effort, and we had been in China and Japan for several days prior. By this point, I was exhausted by our travels and the emotional turmoil of the election. But there was still much activity ahead: a Korean barbecue, a morning of sightseeing in Seoul, a luncheon, and then, at last, the reception itself— a five-hour evening of festivities. Suffice it to say, as that final event wrapped, I was fried. In spite of my fatigue, I found myself at an after-hours karaoke bar with my coworkers and several members of the Korean Alumni Association, unexpectedly performing my best Axl Rose impression. This is not my modus operandi. Yet there I was— embracing the new—committed to an evening of communing over song, delighting in the various performances and selections made by my cohorts: ABBA, K-pop ballads, Patsy Cline, Gloria Gaynor, George Michael . . . the list goes on.

I share this anecdote because one of the highlights of serving SVA alumni is actually meeting them. The daily demands of administration can regularly supersede the seemingly simple act of connecting with individuals. Moreover, our alumni community is vast—35,000 strong and growing—so interacting with everyone in person is impossible. We certainly benefit from having a large number of graduates in the tristate area, which makes possible regular opportunities to engage. But because we have alumni all over the U.S. and the world, we also need to make a dedicated effort to travel and meet them, wherever they live. Henry Miller wrote, “One’s destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things.” Something extraordinary happens when we depart New York and alight in another city, another country. Meeting alumni far away from the College’s dayto-day operations imparts a deeply personal, visceral connection. I treasure these experiences and view them as some of the most important work we do, fostering good will, strengthening the alumni community and embracing pluralism as we learn about other cultures and ways of life in the U.S. and abroad: Eating soup dumplings and street-vendor fried tofu with our alumni guide in China. Scrounging for the last hors d’oeuvres at a Miami Art Week reception to feed a late-arriving young alumni couple who are pioneering a sustainable path as artists living in Portland, Oregon. Visiting the office of a proud alumnus in Seoul and finding it chock-full of SVA posters. These moments shape how we see and understand ourselves and our work, SVA’s mission, and our ever-expanding alumni community. For more information about staying current and connected, and for a complete list of alumni benefits, visit sva.edu/alumni. Questions? Call 212.592.2300 or email alumni@sva.edu. V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

SVA ALUMNI SOCIETY gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our

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ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS 2017 Thanks to generous contributions from alumni and supporters, the SVA Alumni Society was able to grant more than $80,000 in awards to these students in support of their thesis projects.

ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS

Mika Orr, MPS Directing

Amanda Alvich, MPS Directing

Gizelle Peters, BFA Photography and Video

Jihyeon Bae, MFA Computer Art

Oscar Pipson, MFA Products of Design

Christy Bencosme, BFA Fine Arts

Aya Rodriguez-Izumi, MFA Fine Arts

Caroline Berler, MFA Social Documentary Film

Alexander Setzer, BFA Photography and Video

Hakim Bishara, MFA Art Writing

Phoebe Snyder, BFA Photography and Video

Kai Nottapon Boonprakob, MFA Social Documentary Film

Hie Won Sohn, BFA Design

Chelsi Bullard, MFA Social Documentary Film

Catalina Solari, BFA Animation

Lucie Meichun Cai, BFA Interior Design

Nelissa Somocierra, BFA Animation

Brittany Cassell, MFA Fine Arts

Hayley Stephon, BFA Photography and Video

YuChun Chao, MFA Computer Art

Michael Stone, MFA Design

Rob Christie, BFA Film

James Stuart, MFA Social Documentary Film

Gerard d’Albon, BFA Illustration

Joseph Sulsenti, BFA Animation

Sivan Dayan, MFA Fine Arts

Sarah Teller, BFA Photography and Video

Mellasenah Edwards, BFA Illustration

Eric Tenorio, BFA Photography and Video

Fana Feng, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media

Rujie Wang, BFA Photography and Video

Ivoire Foreman, MFA Fine Arts

Elushika Weerakoon, MFA Interaction Design

Sebastian Gat, BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects

Harrison Weinstein, BFA Photography and Video

Laura Hetzel, MPS Art Therapy Ella Hilsenrath, BFA Fine Arts Tara Holland and thesis partner Jesse Kukucka-Doney, BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Farhana Hossain, MFA Computer Art

Molly Woodward, MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism Fuzhong Yang, BFA Photography and Video Kira Yu and thesis partners Jiahui Guo and Dae Yeon Cho, BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Mengtai Zhang, MFA Fine Arts

Alex Hovet, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Sarah Ilustrisimo, BFA Illustration Jake Kaplan and thesis partner Sonia Foltarz, BFA Animation Ninaad Deepak Kulkarni, MFA Computer Art Caitlin Ladd, BFA Visual & Critical Studies Helen Li, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Chenxue Lu, BFA Animation Pragya Mahendru, MFA Design for Social Innovation Lily Maslanka, BFA Visual & Critical Studies Cathrina McDonnell, BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Meytar Moran, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Michelle Nahmad, MFA Visual Narrative Sean Patrick O’Brien, BFA Film Anna Ogier-Bloomer, MPS Digital Photography Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi, MA Curatorial Practice

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

NAMED FUND AWARDS 727 Award Mark Hua, BFA Illustration Sanna Gu, BFA Illustration Sarah Vaccariello, BFA Illustration Amelia Geocos Memorial Award Hiroka Yamashita, BFA Fine Arts BFA Illustration and Cartooning Award Tyler Bantz, BFA Illustration Bob Guglielmo Memorial Award Chewy Um, BFA Cartooning Edward Zutrau Award Sadie Rebecca Starnes, MFA Fine Arts Jack Endewelt Memorial Award Tamara (Toma) Vagner, BFA Illustration James Richard Janowsky Award Sophia Reed, BFA Film

MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Award Mago Huang, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Aura Lewis, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay ShinYeon Moon, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Ignacio Serrano Perez, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Robert I. Blumenthal Memorial Award Sunyoung Yoon, BFA Design Sylvia Lipson Allen Memorial Award Emma Fague, BFA Fine Arts Thomas Reiss Memorial Award Anders Jones, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Will Eisner Sequential Art Award Christina Mattison Ebert, MFA Visual Narrative Liz Enright, MFA Visual Narrative Eugenia Mello, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay William C. Arkell Memorial Award Shailyn Cotten and thesis partner Jessica Naftaly, BFA Film

OPPOSITE FROM LEFT Tamara (Toma) Vagner, Dystopia, 2016,

ballpoint and digital; Fuhzong Yang, untitled, 2016, digital pigment print. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Hiroka Yamashita, The Safe Boat,

2016, oil on canvas; YuChun Chao, main character design for Sinformist, 2016, digital art; Anders Jones, At Your Beautician, 2016, archival pigment print on fine-art paper; Oscar Pipson, Fashionably Late with Brandon Washington, 2016, interactive photograph.

SPR ING 20 1 7

DONORS The SVA Alumni Society gratefully acknowledges these alumni who gave to the society from July 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016. Kim Ablondi

Anthony Chibbaro

Manuela F. Filiaci

Allen Johnston

Laura Maley

BFA 1984 Photography

E 1979

BFA 1979 Fine Arts

E 1966 Graphic Design

BFA 1978 Fine Arts

Arthur Ackermann

Adam V. Ciccarino III

Denise Malin-Young

BFA 2012 Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects

Jeanne FinneranMillett

Shelley Jordon

BFA 1982 Cartooning

BFA 1976 Illustration

BFA 1983 Media Arts

Yvette Kaplan

Kaili Mang

BFA 1976 Animation

BFA 1999 Interior Design

Alexandra Alcantara

BFA 2010 Graphic Design Olive Alpert

E 1980 Illustration Adam P. Ames

MFA 1997 Photography and Related Media Michael J. Angley

G 1971 Advertising Anonymous (8) Paul Basile

G 1969 Advertising Leroy Biles

BFA 1988 Photography James R. Bomeisl

BFA 1978 Graphic Design Gary S. Brinson

BFA 1985 Media Arts Mr. Alan Brooks

BFA 1977 Graphic Design Jeffrey J. Burdin

BFA 1974 Illustration Sharon Burris-Brown

BFA 1984 Illustration Brian Callaghan

BFA 1977 Media Arts John Calnan

G 1957 Frank Caruso

BFA 1985 Cartooning Ed Cassel

G 1970 Fine Arts Paul K. Caullett

BFA 2000 Graphic Design Terese Cavanagh

1968 Media Arts Bernard Champon Jr.

G 1969 Fine Arts Andrew Chang

MFA 1987 Illustration as Visual Essay

Alice E. Meyers Corjescu

E 1974 Fine Arts Phil and Julia Coyne

BFA 1986 Media Arts BFA 1988 Media Arts Cora Cronemeyer

E 1966 Fine Arts Therese Curtin

BFA 1980 Illustration Michael Daly

BFA 1985 Media Arts Paul B. Davis

G 1959 Illustration Catherine Del Buono

MFA 2008 Photography, Video and Related Media

BFA 1985 Media Arts Stefania L. Gallico

BFA 2007 Computer Art

BFA 1982 Media Arts

BFA 1977 Graphic Design

Akiko Kikuchi

Joanna Garland

BFA 1977 Film and Video Andrew Gerndt

G 1971 Fine Arts Isolina Gerona

BFA 1991 Fine Arts Catherine GilmoreBarnes

BFA 1986 Graphic Design Suzanne C. Giovanetti

BFA 1981 Graphic Design

Theresa DeSalvio

Andrea M. Golden

BFA 1976 Fine Arts

E 1985

Haydee Diaz

Valerie J. Gomes

BFA 1986 Graphic Design

BFA 1995 Fine Arts

Rael Jean DiDomenicoSchwab

BFA 1987 Illustration

BFA 1990 Advertising Candace (alumnus) and Jeffrey Dobro

MPS 2010 Digital Photography Rachel June Donovan

BFA 2003 Graphic Design Zackary Drucker

BFA 2005 Photography Ron Dube

1966 Illustration Claire Ensslin

Andy Graziano Catherine K. Gura

BFA 1998 Illustration Meghan Day Healey

BFA 1993 Graphic Design Jean Held

Noelle W. King

BFA 1980 Illustration

MFA 2013 Art Practice

John Hoffmire

E 1975 Joanne Honigman

Carol Fabricatore

Elizabeth J. Hunter

E 1981 Graphic Design

MFA 1992 Illustration as Visual Essay

BFA 1985 Photography

Eugene Ferrara

BFA 1981 Illustration

Nanette Jiji

Sam Martine Kathleen McGee Treat

G 1966 Illustration

BFA 1989 Film and Video

David Moir

Sardi Klein

G 1970 Photography Robert Kohr

BFA 2003 Animation Jean Kooi

BFA 1978 Media Arts Korean Alumni Association of SVA Abby Kreh

G 1962 Illustration Patricia Langer

BFA 1995 Illustration Steven Langerman

G 1972 Photography Paul F. Laone

BFA 1979 Media Arts J.P. Lee

MFA 1991 Computer Art

M. Benjamin Herndon

BFA 1991 Fine Arts

BFA 1990 Illustration

Robert M. Kitson

MPS 2014 Digital Photography

Joseph Herzfeld

BFA 1982 Media Arts Emily Martindale

Jaime C. Lefkowitz

BFA 2012 Fine Arts

Maria S. Mannino

MFA 2008 Photography, Video and Related Media

E 1969

BFA 2012 Film and Video

E 1963 Fine Arts

Randi S. Kessler

Neil M. Gallo

Gary A. Leogrande

BFA 1978 Fine Arts Vance S. Loen

MFA 1988 Computer Art Missy Longo-Lewis

BFA 1984 Illustration David Lubarsky

G 1975 Photography Jenny Moradfar Meyer

BFA 1980 Illustration Natsumi Nishizumi

BFA 2003 Graphic Design Renee NyahayGonzalez

BFA 1985 Graphic Design Susan Koliadko Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien

BFA 1984 Graphic Design Donald A. Orehek

E 1951 Cartooning Romaine Orthwein

MFA 2003 Photography and Related Media Edith Ostrowsky

E 1972 Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Petrilak (alumnus)

BFA 1976 Animation Gary Petrini

E 1979 Media Arts Rita Quintas

BFA 1980 Photography Todd L. Radom

BFA 1979 Photography

BFA 1986 Graphic Design

Annie Malamet

Andrew Rash

MFA 2015 Photography, Video and Related Media

MFA 1996 Illustration as Visual Essay

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

Lisa Rettig-Falcone

Joseph Sinnott

Michelle Zadlock

BFA 1983 Advertising

BFA 1988 Photography

BFA 1990 Advertising

Vernon C. Riddick

Linda Siris

Albert Zayat

G 1973

E 1969

Barbara Rietschel

Gabriel Falsetta and Tina Nannarone

Michiko and Shoichi Matsumoto

Ms. Elizabeth Fama and Mr. John Cochrane

Lynn and Jim McNulty

E 1969

Lauren Zabel Skotnicki

Klara Zdenkova

James Farek

BFA 1976 Media Arts

BFA 1986 Media Arts

Jorge Luis Rodriguez

Rena Anderson Sokolow / one2tree

BFA 2002 Graphic Design

BFA 1976 Fine Arts Marc Rubin

BFA 1982 Advertising Joseph M. Rutt

BFA 1985 Illustration Kathleen E. Sandklev

BFA 1979 Media Arts David T. Santana

BFA 2003 Graphic Design Gabriella A. Santorelli

BFA 2011 Animation Gini Santos

MFA 1996 Computer Art Marta Satwin

BFA 1998 Interior Design Herb Savran

BFA 1977 Film and Video Jean A. Schapowal

BFA 1987 Cartooning Joel Scharf

BFA 1983 Graphic Design Phil Scheuer

E 1981 Illustration Mark Schruntek

BFA 1993 Advertising JoAnne Seador

BFA 1977 Photography Professor Myoung Duck Seo

BFA 1986 Graphic Design Lauren SolomonO’Leary

(E) denotes an evening program student. (G) denotes a graduate of the certificate program.

BFA 2004 Illustration Skip Sorvino

BFA 1994 Graphic Design William Sponn

BFA 1985 Media Arts Andrew St. Angelo

BFA 1988 Media Arts Tony Tallarico

G 1954 Illustration Eugene Thompson

G 1957 Illustration Thomas Trengove

E 1968 Rosemarie Turk

We also thank these parents and friends of SVA who supported the SVA Alumni Society.

E 1969 Tom Wai-Shek

G 1970 Advertising Satoru Tetsu Watanabe

Bank of America Benefit Management Solutions, Inc.

B. Borlongan Tara Borrelli BRD Foundation Richard Buntzen Thomas and Georgeann Carnevali Wei Cheng Harry and Joan Clune

Larry Weinstein

E 1969

Patricia and Michael Crawford

Judith Wilde

Sue and Paul Cryan

BFA 1984 Graphic Design BFA 1987 Media Arts

BFA 1979 Fine Arts MFA 1994 Illustration as Visual Essay

Joseph Dagostaro

Charles Sforza and Mary Moran

Kippax Williams

E 1971

Joseph and Esther DeRosa

Mark Willis

The Di Lillo Family

BFA 1998 Illustration

Mr. and Mrs. Samy Dwek and Family

BFA 1982 Advertising BFA 1976 Graphic Design Mimi Silverman

BFA 1989 Fine Arts Cindy Simon

BFA 1979 Graphic Design

SPR ING 20 1 7

Gary Zaccaria

BFA 1981 Graphic Design Diane Zack

BFA 1984 Advertising

Mary Hendricks

Mary and John Hotaling

John and Amy Crane

Jackie Seow and Rick Pracher

Mr. and Mrs. John Guglielmo

Backhaul Engineering, LLC

BFA 1989 Fine Arts

MFA 1992 Illustration as Visual Essay

Michael Goldberg, CPA & Terry Ganer, CPA

Francisco E. Homs Quiroga

Robert and Julie Bodnar

Frank Wagner

Neil Friedland

Sandra and Francis Archer

Joanne S. Ungar

BFA 1998 Graphic Design

Allen B. Frame

Anonymous (5)

William and Jane Beucler

Barbara Vasquez

Stephen Frailey

Ms. Maryhelen Hendricks and Mr. Robert Lewis

Connie Alexander

BFA 1980 Graphic Design BFA 1984 Fine Arts

Mary Kay and Woody Flowers

DaVinci Artist Supply

John Dye

The Irene Family The Ironwood Foundation, Inc. Dr. J. Isenberg Raja Jaber Glenn Jacobson Darryl David Jensen Michael Kahn / Benefits Unlimited, Inc. Carol Kloss Ann and Douglas Krieger

Meridian Building Services, Inc. Steve and Karen Mills S. A. Modenstein Mary and Dan O’Byrne Elizabeth and Coleman O’Donoghue Proskauer Ned and Ellin Purdom William Rednour RSM US, LLP Dr. Barbara Salander SCS Agency, Inc. Young-Jin Seo Mary Ellen and Frederick Simkin Patricia E. Smith Mr. and Mrs. William D. Stone Robert Sylvor Zita and Ike Szwedski Jeffrey Teets, Sr. Charles B. Unger Irra Verbitsky Charles R. Vermilyea, Jr. Alice Wang and Peter Spiegelman

Ming-Dai Kuo

Margaret and Lynton Wells

Brooke Larsen

Wells Fargo, N.A.

LDI Color Toolbox

Hilda Werschkul, PhD

Tae Young Lee

Ms. Peggy Whitlock

Karen and Michael Lefkowitz

Xiaorui Xing

Julia C. Lester

Michele Zackheim Kathryn M. Zima

Duan Li Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Yooncheol Lim Priscilla Lindenauer Zengwei Lu John and Niki Madias

Barbara and Paul Errico

Magnum Real Estate Group

Mr. and Mrs. Michael A. Esposito

Ronnie and Al Martella

ALUMNI NOTES & EXHIBITIONS

To submit items for consideration for Alumni Notes & Exhibitions, email alumni@sva.edu

Luis Cruz Azaceta (G 1969 Fine Arts), Hell Act, 2009, acrylic, charcoal, pencil and shellac on canvas. Azaceta’s solo exhibition “War and Other Disasters,” was on view at Abroms/Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL, 9/9-12/17/16.

GROUP EFFORTS

SVA alumni claimed a number of prizes across several categories at the 95th Annual ADC Awards, 6/9/16. Both the ADC Black Cube Best of Show and a Gold Cube in the Motion Animation category went to BFA 2015 Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects alumni Thaddaeus Andreades, Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, Nicholas Manfredi and Marie Raoult for their film Taking the Plunge (2015). BFA 2016 Advertising alumni Jeein Lee and Taejun Park were awarded the Gold Cube in the Advertising category for their campaign for the Container Store. Panop Koonwat’s (MFA 2014 Computer Art) film Cupidiculous (2014) earned a Gold Cube in the Motion Animation category, Hanjoon Kim’s (BFA 2016 Design) Shop by Shape (2016) earned a Silver Cube in the Digital category, and BFA 2015 Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects alumni Dominik Koscinski and Elizabeth Lee’s The Misadventures of Chubzilla (2015) won a Silver Cube in the Motion Animation category. Bronze Cube winners included Minhyung Chun’s (BFA 2015 Design) film Deaf (2015) and Kevin Li’s (BFA 2015 Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects) Let’s Go (2015), in the Motion Animation category; Sun Min Chun’s (BFA 2015 Design) Lemon Magazine and OmNom App, in the Design and Digital categories; and Yafei Wang’s (MFA 2016 Design) PatternMaker, in the Design category. BFA 2015 Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects alumni Anne Fong and J. D. Gardner’s film Viva Lucha (2015) and Yi Ju Tsai’s (MFA 2015 Computer Art) In A Good Way (2015) won Merit Cubes in the Motion Animation category.

Theresa DeSalvio’s (BFA 1976 Fine Arts) documentary short TALES: A Cautionary Story About Heroin Addiction (2016) and Minos Papas’ (BFA 2004 Film and Video) film Behind the Mirror (2015) screened at the Hudson Valley International Film Festival, Monroe, NY, 8/28/16. BFA 2012 Graphic Design alumni Santiago Carrasquilla, Pablo Delcan and Joseph Hollier won 2016 Art Directors Club Young Guns awards, 9/12/16. Work by Sarah Dineen (MFA 2015 Fine Arts) was included in the exhibition “Certain Dark Things,” curated by Susan Spence (MFA 1998 Computer Art), Spence Projects, NYC, 9/14-1/2/17. The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign’s Draw The Future coloring book featured illustrations by Selina Alko (BFA 1995 Illustration), You Byun (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay), Timothy Goodman (BFA 2007 Graphic Design), Kate Neckel (MFA 2002 Computer Art), Aya Kakeda (MFA 2002 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Sasha Prood (MFA 2015 Design), 9/22/16. Christopher Bors’ (MFA 1998 Illustration as Visual Essay) and Antonio Romano’s (BFA 1980 Media Arts) work was included in “Figurative Narratives,” Monika Olko Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY, 10/6-10/10/16.

Matthew Craven (MFA 2010 Fine Arts) and Gonzalo Fuenmayor (BFA 2000 Fine Arts) exhibited work in the group show “Papered Stories; 14 Artists Dealing with Paper,” LMAK Gallery, NYC, 6/10-7/30/16.

Andrea McGinty (MFA 2014 Fine Arts) and Chris Oh (BFA 2004 Fine Arts) presented work in the group exhibition “Television,” 99¢ Plus Gallery, NYC, 10/7-12/18/16.

Warren Drummond (BFA 1984 Media Arts), Yong Duk Jhun (MFA 2000 Computer Art), Gillian Robespierre (BFA 2005 Film and Video), Daisuke Tsutsumi (BFA 1998 Illustration) and Pablo Valle (MFA 1997 Computer Art), were invited to become Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members, 6/29/16.

Annie Malamet (MFA 2015 Photography, Video and Related Media), Jung Mun (MFA 2015 Fine Arts), and Sasha Waters Freyer (BFA 1991 Photography) presented work in the group exhibition “Maps, Monuments, and Meditations,” Microscope Gallery, NYC, 10/17/16.

John Arsenault (BFA 1999 Photography), Amy Elkins (BFA 2007 Photography), Thomas Holton (MFA 2005 Photography, Video and Related Media), Dina Kantor (MFA 2007 Photography, Video and Related Media), Miles Ladin (MFA 1993 Photography and Related Media) and Nancy Siesel (BFA 1985 Photography) contributed work to the group exhibition “WE:AMEricans,” Station Independent Projects, NYC, 7/7-8/7/16.

Works by Sally Bozzuto (MFA 2013 Photography, Video and Related Media), Julia Buntaine (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), Donna Cleary (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), Leah Dixon (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), Kathie Halfin (MFA 2015 Fine Arts), Daniel Hill (MFA 1996 Fine Arts), Alison Kuo (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), Ellyn Murphy (BFA 1987 Media Arts), Matthew Stone (MFA 2010 Fine Arts), and Arthur Vidrine (MFA 2014 Fine Arts) were included in “Transborder Art,” curated by Graciela Cassel (MFA 2014 Fine Arts), SciArt Center, NYC, 10/26/16.

Lesley Achitoff (MPS 2004 Art Therapy) and Katherine Hinson (MPS 2010 Art Therapy) were featured in “For Rikers’s Most Troubled Inmates, Art Offers Hope,” Artsy, 7/27/16. MFA 2015 Social Documentary Film alumni Siyan Liu and Danni Wang screened their film JOLIN (2016) at the 2016 Asian American International Film Festival, NYC, 7/29/16.

Amy Elkins’ (BFA 2007 Photography) Black is the Day, Black is the Night (self-published, 2016) and Daniel Traub’s (MFA 1998 Photography and Related Media) Little North Road: Africa in China (Kehrer Verlag, 2016) were among Time’s “Best Photobooks of 2016,” 11/23/16.

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

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1961

Robert Reitzfeld (Advertising). Solo exhibition, “New Paintings,” Front Art Space, NYC, 9/1-9/17/16.

1966

LeRoy Henderson (Photography) was featured in “Life Through the Lens,” Richmond Magazine, 7/10/16.

1974

Joyce Korotkin (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Trois Poissons in a Big See: A Fine Art Curation,” Sterling Sound, NYC, 6/25/16.

1975

1967

Richard Krieger (Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “The Bomb Shelters Will Save Us!” Union Gallery at Wagner College, NYC, 9/2-9/23/16.

1969

Margaret McCarthy (BFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “A Vision and A Verse: The Wheel of the Year in Word and Image,” Mindy Ross Gallery, SUNY Orange, Newburgh, NY, 8/19-10/6/16.

Daniel Ginsberg (Advertising) self-published The African American Heritage Coloring Book: An Educational Journey (Ginsberg Publications, 2016). Michael Esbin (Fine Arts) was featured in “Actions in Stone,” Sculpture, 7/1/16.

1971

John Fezzuoglio’s (Fine Arts) ice cream parlor, oWowCow Creamery, was named Best Ice Cream in New Jersey, NJ.com, 7/27/16.

1972

Linda Kooluris-Dobbs (BFA Illustration). Solo exhibition, “Salsa, Eight on Eight,” Galleria 814, Toronto, 7/5-7/30/16.

1973

Marilyn Church (Illustration). Solo exhibition, “Crime and Passion,” Carter Burden Gallery, NYC, 11/1-11/22/16.

1976

Jorge Rodriguez (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “After 31 Lonely Years, a Sculpture in East Harlem Will Have Company,” The New York Times, 7/10/16. Effie Serlis (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Gowanus Open Studios,” Ti Art Studios, NYC, 10/15-10/16/16.

1977

Charles Fazzino (BFA Graphic Design) was named official artist of Team USA for the 2016 Rio Olympics, 7/27/16. Peter Malone (BFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “May We Help You: Portraits of the Yonkers Public Library Staff,” Riverfront Art Gallery, Yonkers, NY, 10/20-12/15/16.

Timothy Rollins’ (BFA Fine Arts) piece A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was permanently installed at the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, 9/15/16.

1980

Robert Pizzo (BFA Cartooning) was featured in “Why Infographics Matter in Today’s Data-dense World,” Twirling Tiger Media, 11/11/16.

1981

Drew Friedman (BFA Cartooning) published More Heroes of the Comics (Fantagraphics, 2016). Peter Hristoff (BFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Silhouettes 1996-2016,” Piazza Navona, Rome, 10/20-11/10/16. Barbara Kolo (BFA Media Arts). Group exhibition, “Continuum: Artistic Explorations of Black, White and the In Between,” Mike Wright Gallery, Denver, 6/17-7/30/16. Donald Shanley (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Long Shot 2016,” Photography Center NW, Seattle, 6/25/16. Marc Yankus (BFA Illustration). Solo exhibition, “The Secret Lives of Buildings,” ClampArt, NYC, 10/13-11/26/16.

1982

Lorna Simpson (BFA Photography). Solo exhibition, “Lorna Simpson,” Salon 94, NYC, 9/8-10/22/16.

1983

Steven Petruccio (BFA Illustration) illustrated Runaway Slave (Pioneer Valley SPR ING 20 1 7

Books, 2016), Presidential Libraries (Dover Publications, 2016), and The Little Cookie (Norwood House Press, 2016). Timothy Taylor (BFA Illustration) was featured in The Million Dollar Duck (2016), which premiered on Animal Planet, 10/14/16.

1984

Donna Sharrett (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “The Thread You Follow,” Daum Museum, Sedalia, MO, 10/1/1612/20/16.

1985

Steven Block (BFA Media Arts). Solo exhibition, “Released,” Lane Gallery, Portland, OR, 9/10-11/5/16.

1986

Ursula Biemann (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Incerteza Viva: 32nd Bienal de Sao Paulo,” Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil, 9/7-12/11/16. Marianne Weil (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Long Island Biennial,” Heckscher Museum of Art, NYC, 9/312/4/16.

1987

Mamie Holst (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Figurative Geometry,” Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 10/16/2016-4/2/2017. Tricia Kim (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Nasi Campur,” Taksu Bali, Bali, Indonesia, 6/11-7/11/16.

Gary Petersen (MFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Back There Behind the Sun,” McKenzie Fine Art, NYC, 9/7-10/16/16.

1988

Eva Mantell (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Overflow,” Paul Mellon Arts Center, Wallingford, CT, 11/3-12/18/2016. Gary Simmons (BFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Gary Simmons,” Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, 6/8-7/15/16.

1989

Jane Brill-McWhorter (BFA Graphic Design). Solo exhibition, “WhatAmILooking At?,” Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Spencertown, NY, 9/24-10/9/16. Margaret Lanzetta (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Flower Power,” Kenise Barnes Fine Art Gallery, Larchmont, NY, 7/13-9/2/16. Cathryn Mezzo (BFA Media Arts) was featured in “Outside the Lines,” Mineola American, 8/11/16. Brian Rutenberg (MFA Fine Arts) published Clear Seeing Place (Permanent Green, 2016). John Simon (MFA Computer Art). Solo exhibition, “Endlessly Expanding,” Sandra Gering Inc, NYC, 9/22-12/16/16. Christopher Spinelli (BFA Illustration) was featured in “I Am Brooklyn,” series, New York’s PIX 11, 7/21/16.

1990

Paul Evans (BFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Residual Tilt,” One Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY, 7/2-7/30/16. Gregory Miller (BFA Photography). Group exhibition, “SPF16: NYC Pools and Beaches in Contemporary Photography,” Central Park Arsenal Gallery, NYC, 6/2308/26/16.

1991

Kip Omolade’s (BFA Illustration) paintings were featured in “Spellbinding Portraits That Will Make You Forget How to Speak,” SoBadSoGood, 8/17/16.

Susan Leopold (BFA 1982 Fine Arts), Upstairs, 2016, mixed media, architectural model-making materials, digital prints mounted on Plexiglas, LED lights and wood. Leopold’s solo exhibition, “Living Rooms,” was on view at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, 10/7-10/29/16.

Anne Ostholthoff (MFA Fine Arts) opened Anne O Art Gallery in Atlanta.

1994

James Sturm (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “For 25 Years, The Stranger Has Spoken the Sexy, Unruly, Visual Language of Art Itself,” The Stranger, 10/12/16.

1992

Viktor Koen (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay). Solo exhibition, “Bestiary: Bizarre Myths & Chimerical Fancies,” United Photo Industries, NYC, 11/3/16-1/7/17. Hanoch Piven (BFA Graphic Design) was featured in “Communicating Creative Ideas with Everyday Objects,” Myanmar Times, 6/28/16.

1993

Mark Power (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Witschi/Power. Faucets and Hoses,” Frosch & Portmann, NYC, 7/21-8/21/16.

John Ferry (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay). Group exhibition, “13th Annual 2016 Blanche Ames National Art Exhibition,” Friends of Borderland, North Easton, MA, 9/20-10/8/16. Eileen Karakashian (BFA Advertising). Group exhibition, “Armenian Coffee Art Project,” Tufenkian Artisan Carpets, NYC, 6/10/16. Alexandros Megas (BFA Graphic Design). Solo exhibition, “Figuratively Speaking,” Agora Gallery, NYC, 7/8-7/28/16. Riad Miah (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “The Persistent Nature of Urgency - Works on Paper,” Mayson Gallery, NYC, 6/7-6/21/16. Stephen Mumford (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “15 Years after the War in Afghanistan, an Embedded War Artist

Looks Back,” Creative Time Reports, 10/18/16. Albert Stern (BFA Illustration) gave an artist talk at the Denver Art Museum, Denver, 10/1/16.

1995

Michael De Feo (BFA Graphic Design). Solo exhibition, “Crosstown Traffic,” Rice Gallery, Houston, 6/9-8/28/16. Jalal Pleasant’s (Fine Arts) work was included in “Blooom 2016,” Koelnmesse Hall, Cologne, Germany, 10/27-10/30/16.

1996

Brian “KAWS” Donnelly (BFA Illustration). Solo exhibition, “KAWS: Where the End Starts,” The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, 10/20/20161/22/2017. Vincent Ficarra (BFA Illustration) was interviewed in “Q+A: Vincent Ficarra -

Founder and Creative Director, Revolver New York,” Independent Lodging Congress, 10/26/16. Simen Johan (BFA Photography) was featured in “These Nature Photographs Aren’t What They Seem,” Nautilus, 7/14/16. Justine Kurland (BFA Photography) was featured in “Six Years on the Road, as an Artist and a Mother,” The New Yorker, 10/21/16. Andrew Rash (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “AI-AP’s Profiles: Andy Rash,” American Illustration - American Photography, 6/2/16. Stephen Savage (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) illustrated “In Men, Depression is Different,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/19/16.

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

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Nikon Salon, Tokyo, Japan, 10/1810/31/16.

2002

ON megumi Akiyoshi (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Light Year 14: Japan Parade,” Leo Kuelbs Collection, NYC, 6/2/16. Marlena Buczek Smith (BFA Graphic Design). Group exhibition, “13th International Triennial of the Political Poster Show,” Mons Memorial Museum, Mons, Belgium, 10/29-6/25/17. Mariam Ghani (MFA Photography and Related Media). Solo exhibition, “Mariam Ghani: The City & The City,” Ryan Lee Gallery, NYC, 9/10-11/5/16. Young Sam Kim (BFA Photography). Group exhibition, “Civilized & Wild,” Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, NYC, 6/97/30/16. Crystal Moselle’s (BFA Film and Video) short film That One Day (2016) was featured in “A Day at the Park With Fashion’s Favorite Girl Skateboarders,” The New York Times, 9/1/16. Thomas Prior’s (BFA Photography) work was featured in “Finding Poetry in Sport Photography,” Time, 7/28/16. Robin Raven (BFA Film and Video) published Santa’s First Vegan Christmas (Vegan Publishers, 2016). Diana Shpungin (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Caitlin Masley-Charlet and Diana Shpungin in Conversation,” College Art Association’s Art Journal, 7/8/16. Raina Telgemeier (BFA Illustration) was featured in “Get That Life: How I Became a Best-Selling Graphic Novelist,” Cosmopolitan, 9/12/16. JANICE CASWELL (BFA 1998 Fine Arts), Construction 82, 2016, acrylic, ink and cardboard. Caswell’s solo exhibition,

“Assembly Required,” was on view at Matteawan Gallery, Beacon, NY, 9/10-10/2/16.

Jonathan Torgovnik (BFA Photography) was awarded a $10,000 editorial grant from Getty Images, 9/1/16.

Timothy Needles (BFA Photography) received the PBS Learning Media Digital Innovator Award, 6/13/16.

Artem Mirolevich (BFA Illustration). Solo exhibition, “Retrofuture,” Romanian Cultural Center, London, UK, 11/23-12/12/16.

1997

Mimi Young (MFA Computer Art) was interviewed in “Women in Business Q&A, Mimi Young, Behavior Design,” Huffington Post, 10/12/16.

2000

Raúl Manzano (BFA Illustration). Group exhibition, “La Raza: Embracing Diversity,” Livingston Gallery, Empire State College, NYC, 9/28-12/15/16. Sarah Sze’s (MFA Fine Arts) work was featured in “Sarah Sze’s beguiling art? It’s about time,” The Boston Globe, 10/28/16.

1998

Andrew Dayton’s (BFA Computer Art) company Steel Wool Studios released Bounce (2016), a VR puzzle-based game. Alejandro Dron (MFA Computer Art) was awarded the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation’s Individual Support Grant in the amount of $25,000, 4/27/16. Darin Mickey (BFA Photography) published Death Takes a Holiday (J&L Books, 2016).

1999

Ketta Ioannidou (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay). Group exhibition, “Surface Two,” ARENA at Brooklyn Dermatology, NYC, 6/24-10/24/16. Danny Kimanyen (BFA Animation) created a mural of the TV show TEEN TITANS GO! as part of the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, 8/11/16. Charles Ladson (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Steinpilz, Grids and Glorias,” Frosch & Portmann, NYC, 6/2-7/17/16. Junho Lee’s (BFA Photography) shopping bag design was featured in “You can now buy a LEGO bag that will turn your actual hand into LEGO,” Metro, 10/17/16.

Kathryn Bentley (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Inside LA Jewelry Superstar Kathryn Bentley’s Bag,” LA Racked, 7/26/16. Kevin Cooley (MFA Photography and Related Media). Group exhibition, “Boundless: A California Invitational,” The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, 10/15/16-1/29/17. Lauren Redniss (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, 9/21/16. Michael Simmonds (BFA Film and Video) was the cinematographer for White Girls (2015), which was released in theaters in September 2016.

2001

Takahiro Kaneyama (MFA Photography and Related Media). Solo exhibition, “While Leaves are Falling...” Shinjuku

2003

Kevin Amato’s (BFA Photography) work was featured in “These Portraits Capture the Brilliant, Raw Style in the Bronx,” Yahoo News, 9/19/16. Lauren Berke’s (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) work was featured in “Lauren Simkin Berke’s Sketchbooks,” American Illustration - American Photography, 7/28/16. Jennifer Kinon’s (MFA Design) work was featured in “Behind the Branding of the Hillary Clinton Campaign,” Fast Company Design, 8/23/16. Adam Lister’s (BFA Fine Arts) work was featured in “8-bit Geometric Watercolor Paintings: Star Wars, Rap Stars, Icons and Classics,” Boing Boing, 7/8/16. Benjamin Marra’s (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) work was featured in “ The Q&A: Benjamin Marra,” American Illustration - American Photography, 9/19/16. Lauren Matsumoto (MFA Design). Group exhibition, “What Have We Done,” Walker Contemporary, Waitsfield, VT, 9/10-10/29/16.

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

2004

2008

Anne Peabody’s (MFA Fine Arts) work was included in Peter Marino: Art Architecture (Phaidon Press, 2016).

Jade Doskow (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) published Lost Utopias (Black Dog Publishing, 2016).

Matthew Pillsbury’s (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) work was featured in “Matthew Pillsbury’s Magical Long Exposures,” American Photo, 11/1/16.

Allison Kaufman (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media). Group exhibition, “Once More, with Feeling,” EFA Project Space, NYC, 11/11-12/22/16.

2005

Robert Lawrence (MFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Passenger With Horizon,” GRIN, Providence, RI, 9/17-10/15/16.

Kurt Lightner (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Arts Preview: Lightner’s Work Reflects Rural Roots,” Columbus Alive, 7/21/16.

Jennifer Brown (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Beautiful Collages and Drawings of Flower-covered Marine Life by Jenny Brown,” Creative Boom, 6/7/16. Lauren Castillo (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) published It’s Not Time for Sleeping (Clarion Books, 2016). UuDam Nguyen (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Fiesta Mobile,” High Line, NYC, 6/30-8/31/16. David Spaltro’s (BFA Film and Video) film Dark Exorcism (2016) was released on DVD through Breaking Glass Pictures, 9/13/16.

Cat Del Buono (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media). Solo exhibition, “Voices,” Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 7/6-7/31/16.

Matt Rota (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “The Q&A: Matt Rota,” American Illustration - American Photography, 11/21/16. Jessica Ruliffson’s (BFA Illustration) comic “Luck of the Draw,” was published in The Boston Globe, 7/16/16. Martin Wittfooth (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay). Solo exhibition, “The Archaic Revival,” Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, 10/1-10/29/16.

Jennifer Young (BFA 2007 Fine Arts and MAT Art Education). Group exhibition, “Behind Narrative + Emerging Artists 2016,” One Art Space, NYC, 11/10-11/13/16.

2009

Rebecca Sugar (BFA Animation) was featured in “Rebecca Sugar, Cartoon Network’s First Female Creator, on Writing LGBTQ Stories for Kids,” PBS Newshour, 9/4/16.

Amber Boardman (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Collaboration in the Digital Age Has Made Life Easier for Thousands. Not So Much for Portrait Artist Amber Boardman,” Happy, 10/25/16.

Rich Tu (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) launched “First Generation Burden,” a podcast featuring interviews with artists and cultural figures, 11/14/16.

Maureen Drennan’s (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) photographs were featured in “Photos of Women and Children Survivors Tell a Different Story About Colombia’s Struggles,” Huffington Post, 10/7/16.

Natan Dvir (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media). Solo exhibition, “Belief,” State Art Gallery, Hyderabad, India, 9/2910/9/2016.

Rebecca Goyette (MFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Ghost Bitch U.S.A.,” Freight and Volume, NYC, 7/7-9/11/16. Hye-Ryoung Min (MPS Digital Photography) was featured in “Making Fine Art Photographs in the Digital Age,” Feature Shoot, 10/28/16. Joanna Neborsky (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was featured in “A Victorian Parlor Game Gets Resurrected in LA: City of the Seekers,” The Creators Project, 9/22/16.

2010

Jacqueline Lay’s (MFA Design) animation was featured in “David Lynch on Where Great Ideas Come From,” The Atlantic, 6/19/2016. Dina Litovsky’s (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) work was featured in “A Girls’ Night Out in New York’s Meatpacking District,” Time, 7/15/16.

2011

Sasha Friedlander (MFA Social Documentary Film) received a Women in Film Finishing Fund grant to complete her film Mudflow (2016), 11/23/16.

2006

Brent Birnbaum’s (MFA Fine Arts) work was featured in “Why an Artist Filled a Lower East Side Gallery with 45 Mini-Fridges,” Artsy, 7/13/16.

LUIS CRUZ AZACETA, Shifting States: Syria, 2011, acrylic, charcoal, oil stick and shellac on canvas.

Joseph Grazi (BFA Animation). Solo exhibition, “Cecil: A Love Story,” Joseph Gross Gallery, NYC, 10/6-10/29/16. Christine Sun Kim (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “The Politics of Sound: An Interview with Christine Sun Kim,” Art in America, 10/6/16. Karen Miranda Rivadeneira (BFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Espiritu,” Fall Line Projects/Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Treehouse Photo Studio, Atlanta, 9/23-9/25/16. Shen Wei (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) was featured in “Meet Shen Wei, The Chinese Artist Who Explores the World with No Clothes,” CNN, 10/28/16.

2007

Lisa Elmaleh (BFA Photography) published Everglades (Zatara Press, 2016). Erin Gleeson (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) was featured in “A Feast for the Season,” Palo Alto Online, 11/17/16. Kripa Joshi’s (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) comic was featured in “Miss Moti Takes on Body-Shamers, One Comic at a Time,” The Quint, 8/26/16. Jeanette Rodriguez (BFA Illustration). Solo exhibition, “Windows of My Soul,” Studio Around the Corner, Brewster, NY, 7/9-8/28/16.

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Jewelry * Apparel

Metropolitan Pavilion Metropolitan Pavilion

Home Decor * Zines

sva.edu/makers-market 2013

Anna Beeke (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) was featured in “Photographer of the Week #155: Anna Beeke,” Capricious, 11/15/16. Shubhashish Bhutiani’s (BFA Film and Video) film Mukti Bhawan - Hotel Salvation (2016) premiered at the 2016 Venice International Film Festival, Venice, Italy, 9/2/16. Romke Hoogwaerts (BFA Visual & Critical Studies). Group exhibition, “Public/Private/Portrait,” Deli Gallery, NYC, 6/26/16.

Star Montana (BFA 2003 Photography), Saint Louise Ascends, 2012, inkjet print. Montana’s solo exhibition, “Tear Drops and Three Dots,” was on view at UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, Los Angeles, 9/2-10/28/16.

Rebecca Genné-Bacon (BFA Illustration) was featured in “6 Best Tattoo Artists in NYC,” Complex, 9/9/16. Cynthia Hinant (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” Art + Culture Projects Pop-up Space, NYC, 6/22-6/30/16. Mark Kendall (MFA Social Documentary Film) was named a 2016 Pew Fellow for his work in documentary film, 6/14/16. Jess Worby (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) was interviewed in “The Q&A: Jess Worby,” American Illustration - American Photography, 10/24/16.

2012

Theodore Boyer (BFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Four Travelling Artists Interpret Local Inspirations in a Pop-up Art Show,” The Hindu, 7/8/16. Anthony Kieren’s (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) work was featured in “We Sent a Fashion Illustrator to Fire Island’s Invasion of the Pines,” Fashion Weekly Daily, 7/6/16. Eric Mistretta (MFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Bad Doctor,” Kustera Projects, NYC, 9/9-10/2/16.

Hu Renyi (MFA Art Practice). Solo exhibition, “RE-thINK INK,” Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Gallery, NYC, 9/9-9/25/16. Boyoun Kim (BFA Illustration) was featured in “Illustrator Profile - Boyoun Kim,” American Illustration - American Photography, 8/4/16. Olivia Locher’s (BFA Photography) work was featured in “19 Strange, Surprising & Serious Laws: In Photos,” Refinery 29, 6/29/16. Melody Melamed (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media) was featured in “14 Intimate Photos That Depict One Trans Woman’s Rapidly Changing Life,” Refinery 29, 9/16/2016. Keith Negley (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay) published My Dad Used To Be So Cool (Flying Eye Books, 2016).

Stationery* &More! Lily Padula’s (BFA Illustration) work was featured in “The Secret History of the GIF,” Mashable, 8/10/16. Doris Peterson (MAT Art Education). Solo exhibition, “Trust,” Les Malamut Art Gallery, Union, NJ, 7/1-8/31/16. Janine Toro (MFA Design) co-created and hosts Naked & Inside Out: An LGBTQ Podcast (2016). Denise Treizman (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Denise Treizman: Art that Rocks - and Rolls,” Re:Sculpt, 7/6/16. Brian Whiteley (MFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “The Donald J. Trump Tombstone (The Legacy Stone Project),” BFP Creative, NYC, 9/23-10/9/2016.

2014

Irene Chin (BFA Fine Arts) screened her film The Lost Arcade (2014) at Metrograph, NYC, 8/16-8/17/16. Richard Clarkson’s (MFA Products of Design) work was featured in “A Levitating Wireless Speaker in the Shape of a Storm Cloud,” Colossal, 10/10/16. Lacy Kiernan’s (MPS Digital Photography) photographs were featured in “Promos We Kept: 7 Great Summer Promotional Pieces,” Photo District News, 7/27/16. Amanda Konishi’s (BFA Illustration) work was featured in “I Was 20 Weeks Pregnant When They Told Me My Baby Might Never Be Able to Walk,” Narratively, 7/9/16. V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

Susan Leopold (BFA 1982 Fine Arts), Radiator, 2016, mixed media, architectural model-making materials, digital prints mounted on Plexiglas, LED lights and wood.

Zachary Krevitt (BFA Photography). Solo exhibition, “Alpha, Beta, Omega,” Ray Gallery, NYC, 9/1-10/1/16. Andrea McGinty (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Networked Souls,” Alter Space, San Francisco, 6/25-7/23/16. Joshua Treuhaft (MFA Design for Social Innovation) was featured in “Salvage Supperclub: A High-End Dinner in a Dumpster to Fight Food Waste,” NPR, 7/29/16. Manuel Vazquez (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Acid Free,” Lazy Susan Gallery, NYC, 10/26-11/1/16.

2015

Christy Bremer (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Artist Christybomb Debuts at SCOPE | Miami Art Basel Week 2016,” Amplified Art Network, 11/26/16. Kawo Cheang’s (MFA Computer Art) film Soul Walker (2015) was an official selection of the Ottawa International Animation Festival in the World Student Panorama category, 9/16-9/25/16. Nadine Faraj (MFA Fine Arts). Solo exhibition, “Naked Revolt,” Anna Zorina Gallery, NYC, 10/6-11/12/16. Kevin Hong (BFA Illustration) was featured in “Artist of the Day: Kevin Hong,” Cartoon Brew, 7/14/16.

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IN MEMORIAM

Cecil Cooper (BFA 1976 Fine Arts, MFA 1993 Fine Arts) died on Thursday, September 15, 2016. Cooper was an artist and educator born in Hanover, Jamaica, in 1946. After studying at SVA and exhibiting his work in New York galleries, he returned to Jamaica in 1980 to teach at the Jamaica School of Art (now the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts), of which he was one of the first graduates in 1966. His work has been exhibited in Jamaica, the United States, Canada, Germany, and Central and South America. He received one of Jamaica’s highest honors, the Order of Distinction (Commander Class), shortly before he died. He is survived by his wife, Rose. Ray DiPalma (faculty, Humanities and Sciences) died on December 6, 2016. DiPalma joined SVA’s faculty in 1997. He taught a range of writing and literature courses, and mentored many junior faculty members, during his tenure. An accomplished poet and visual artist, he published more than 30 books of poetry, translations and graphic works in his lifetime, and received several fellowships and awards. His writings have been translated to Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish and praised by such poets as Robert Creeley and Jackson Mac Low. His art has been exhibited internationally and at such

institutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum and The Museum of Modern Art. Nina Frenkel (MFA 2012 Illustration as Visual Essay) died on Thursday, July 21, 2016, after battling breast cancer. Frenkel, who received her BFA from Carleton College, began her career in 1996 as an illustrator for Slate. She worked for many educational, commercial, editorial and publishing clients, and taught animation and design at Parsons, the City College of New York and Queens College in New York. After she was diagnosed with the disease in her second semester at SVA, Frenkel created the character Brave Chicken to cope with her experience, which she developed into her thesis using clay, comics and posters. She is survived by her parents, Anne and Marcel, and her brother, Steve.

Denise Urban (MFA 1998 Computer Art) died on Thursday, July 28, 2016, after a battle against ovarian cancer. Urban held freelance and staff positions in art direction, production and fashion design at Madison Avenue and Park Avenue design agencies, and most recently served as president and creative director of Urban Digits, a design agency creating licensed art for retail products. Urban taught design, marketing and branding at Katharine Gibbs School in Manhattan and fine art and digital design production courses at Moore College of Art and Design, in Philadelphia, where she earned her BFA. She is survived by her husband, Jeff.

Keibun Miyamoto (MFA 1991 Photography and Related Media) died on Wednesday, August 3, 2016. Born in Saitama City, Japan, Miyamoto was a commercial and editorial photographer. His clients included IBM, Sony and Toyota, as well as Interview and Harper’s Bazaar. He photographed notable public figures throughout his career, including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Michael Jordan. His work was exhibited in galleries in Tokyo and New York City, and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

RE A SONS TO CON T RIBU T E • SVA Alumni Society provides scholarships and awards to

students in all majors. • Your gift provides students with opportunity, recognition

and motivation at crucial moments in their educations as they transition into working creative professionals. • Your gift counts. 100% of your donation goes directly to

students; SVA covers all overhead expenses for the Alumni Society. No contributed funds are used for overhead or administrative costs. • SVA Alumni Society is a not-for-profit corporation, 501(c)(3),

that is independent of the College. All gifts are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

WAYS T O C ON T RI BU T E

Questions? 212.592.2300 or alumnisociety@sva.edu

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Please make checks payable to SVA Alumni Society. For a complete list of funds go to sva.edu/funds. If no fund

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Brandon Isralsky (BFA 2013 Photography, MFA Photography, Video and Related Media). Solo exhibition, “145 Avenue C,” PARIS TEXAS Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, 10/6-10/10/16. Carlos Jaramillo’s (BFA Photography) work was featured in “The Beauty of Cuban Pigeon Racing,” VICE, 6/27/16. William King (MPS Digital Photography) was awarded third prize in Digital Photo Pro’s The Face: 2016 Annual Photo Contest, 11/21/16. Brett Kodama’s (BFA Film and Video) documentary film One-Two-One-Seven: A Story of Japanese Internment (2016) was featured in “Filmmaker Tells Personal Story of Manzanar,” Los Angeles Times, 7/19/16. Agnieszka Korbica’s (MPS Digital Photography) photographs were featured in “How to Make Money as a Photographer,” American Photo, 11/21/16. Zachary Krall (BFA Photography). Group exhibition, “Obstructed Views,” Scott Charmin Gallery, Houston, 9/30/16. Kenneth Lavey’s (BFA Photography) work was featured in “The Surprising Sexiness of Plastic Watering Cans,” VICE, 10/23/16. Kathryn Mussallem (MPS Digital Photography) presented her lecture, “Hey Sailor! New in Town?” Santa Barbara

Maritime Museum, Santa Barbara, CA, 8/11/16. Tory Rust’s (MPS Fashion Photography) work was featured in “Your Ultimate After-Hours Beauty Looks Are Here,” Nylon, 11/21/16. Jeff Shaffer’s (MPS Digital Photography) photographs were featured in “The Art of the Personal Project: Jeff Shaffer,” A Photo Editor, 8/11/16. Alcee Walker (MFA 2014 Social Documentary Film and MPS Live Action Short Film) was featured in “Filmmaker Alcee Walker Using Recent Events to Put a Spotlight on School Bullying Issues,” West Palm Beach WPTV, 8/23/16.

2016

Angelique Ambrosio’s (MPS Digital Photography) project “Seductive,” was named a finalist in the 2016 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Delano Dunn (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “With Liberty and (in)Justice for All?: An exploration of inequities, truths, and interpretations of American Justice,” Project for Empty Space, Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ, 9/17-10/7/16. Samantha Friend’s (BFA Photography and Video) photographs were featured in “Opening Day at Kentucky’s Creationist Ark Encounter,” VICE, 8/10/16.

is designated, the gift will benefit the Alumni Scholarship Award Fund.

Anthony Geathers’ (BFA Photography and Video) work was featured in “Celebrating New York City’s Streetball Culture,” Time, 8/19/16. Wengu Hu (MFA Computer Art) presented his game “Zombies Shall Not Pass!” at the 2016 Indiecade International Festival of Independent Games, Los Angeles, 10/14-10/16/16. Katelyn Kopenhaver’s (BFA Photography and Video) work was featured in “Coming Down: Katelyn Kopenhaver (Designer to Watch/Exclusive Editorial),” Nakid, 8/9/16. Georgia Lale (MFA Fine Arts). Group exhibition, “Confronting Crisis: Recent Artistic Interventions in the Public Space,” 15th International Exhibition of Architecture at the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 5/28-11/27/16. Christina Liao (MFA Social Documentary Film) received the Jury Award in the Best Asian American Student Filmmakers category at the 22nd Annual Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards, 11/12/16. Mischelle Moy’s (BFA Photography and Video) work was featured in “Held Back: Battling for the Fate of a School District,” Harper’s, 9/16/2016. Karis Oh’s (BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects) work was featured in “The Moment: A Short Anima-

tion That Will Punch You in The Gut with Emotions,” Lost at E Minor, 6/27/16. Jessica Pettway’s (BFA Photography and Video) photographs were featured in “These Bright, Surreal Pictures Redefine Still-Life Photography,” VICE, 8/23/16. Ziyun Qi’s (MFA Products of Design) design work was featured in “This Reverse Alarm Clock Yawns to Remind You to Go to Bed on Time,” Fast Company, 10/27/16. Goeun Seo (MFA Design, BFA 2011 Graphic Design). Solo exhibition, “Dream,” Cloud Gallery, NYC, 11/28-11/29/16. Dana Stirling (MFA Photography, Video and Related Media). Group exhibition, “Self Portrait,” Andrea Meislin Gallery, NYC, 7/7-7/28/16. Dáreece Walker (MFA Fine Arts) was featured in “Art With a Story to Tell,” The Lexington Clipper-Herald, 7/26/16. Ping Wang (MPS Digital Photography) was featured in “Ping Wang Xin: The Work of This New York City Based Photographer Conveys Honest Emotions,” Communication Arts, 10/3/16. Nichole Washington’s (MPS Digital Photography) work was featured in “Fashion Week Photographer Follows Latest Trends on Streets of New York,” Al Jazeera English YouTube Channel, 9/10/16.

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**Subject to availability, terms and conditions apply. Maximum purchase allowance limits are strictly enforced.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

JANE CORBET T

or a handful of years in the late 1970s and early ’80s, SVA’s then-BFA Fine Arts Chair Paul Waldman organized an informal charity tennis tournament among artists, art dealers and College faculty and administrators with the goal of raising funds for College scholarships. The competitors would assemble at an indoor court facility in the city—one year it was in Harlem, another in Queens—for a day or evening of play, capped off with a trophy presentation. SVA founder Silas H. Rhodes, an avid tennis fan, competed, as did SVA President David Rhodes, who, by his own admission, is more of a squash player. “My goal was to get to the net as quickly as possible,” he says. “Once I was up there, I was okay.” For an intentionally low-key event, the tournament drew impressive star power. In 1979, pop art icon Roy Lichtenstein, painter Don Nice and influential dealers Timothy Baum and Louis Meisel all showed up with their racquets. So too, improbably, did Robert Duvall, circa his Apocalypse Now heyday. The answer to who invited the legendary actor has been lost to time. Thankfully, the photographs from that year’s competition have not. [Greg Herbowy]

ABOVE From left, artist Don Nice, an unidentified woman, Visual Arts Gallery

coordinator Jeanie Blake, art dealer Louis Meisel and artist Roy Lichtenstein at the 1979 SVA Scholarship Fund Annual Tennis Tournament. BELOW Actor Robert Duvall and SVA founder Silas H. Rhodes at the 1979 SVA Scholarship Fund Annual Tennis Tournament.

JANE CORBET T

V I SUA L A R T S JOUR N A L

External Relations Â· School of Visual Arts 209 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010-3994 sva.edu

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